by Chanell Gautreaux

Created on: January 12, 2010

My favorite way to relax is to do absolutely nothing.  This may not appear to be particularly interesting in comparison to hobbies like sailing or gardening or knitting, but I am often on the go so much that when I don’t have to be anyplace or do anything by a certain time I just like to lie around and be lazy and not do anything more strenuous than breathing.  I don’t want to think, I don’t want to manage any aspect of life; I simply want to be.

Now, this may not seem like such a difficult thing to do but when you lead a busy life there is always some thing waiting to be done and when your mind is constantly active you are always thinking of all of these multitudes of things that are never ending and therefore forever awaiting completion and it is hard to relax and give yourself permission to just do nothing for even half a day.

My second favorite way to relax is to spend the day watching movies.  I love the movies with a capital L (and capital everything else), though it is inappropriate to type the word love in all caps here.  (I am assuming that since the above title includes “I” it is acceptable to compose my piece with references in the first person.) 

Wine tasting is another favorite activity of mine that could surely be seen as a hobby that is also a fun way to relax.  What better way to close out the work week than to sample a handful of interesting wines among friends and compare notes?  So many wines, so little time…

Reading an actual book and not a web document of some kind has become such a luxury I can no longer include book reading as a favorite hobby I use to relax, though it feels great on the rare occasion I can actually finish a book from start to finish without getting sidetracked.  Reading is not only relaxing it is informative and even self-affirming at times depending on what it is you are reading.

Vegging out in front of the television is pretty high up on my list of ways to relax.  It’s cheap (I already have the TV and electricity), it’s entertaining (I like to laugh) and on the occasion I can catch something good on PBS or Planet Green, very informative.  With the exception of educational programming it is another one of those things you can do to relax without having to think about it.

I have often listed surfing the net as one of my hobbies, though I am not sure I would list that as something I do to relax.  I don’t really have hobbies; I don’t really need them, but I do like to relax when I can and for now, doing nothing is still number one.

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