Just chill ...
Hi everyone!
It’s the weekend which means I have time to blog again. Isn’t this fun? It’s like a great big worldwide blogging party. Fantastic!
Firstly, let me say ‘Congratulations!’ to Lewis on the upcoming arrival of his little bundle of joy. Lewis, I am not a mum myself, so I have no parental words of wisdom to share, but I think anyone who thinks so seriously and carefully about how to be a good parent like you are doing is bound to be a great Dad. I wish you all the best.
Thanks to Wellebaby, Pary, Marianna, Habooba, David, Naheed, Filippo and Tomo for your comments. It’s great to be in touch with you all again! Pary, you asked about improving your vocabulary. Keeping a vocabulary notebook is a good idea – just jot down new words as you see them. But don’t try to do too much at once -- language boffins have found that we can only retain about 4-5 new words at a time. So sometimes, less is more! All of you who attempted my homework got it right – do I need to be more dastardly next time? Well, maybe not – it is the weekend, after all ...
Now, this morning I did something for the first time. I went to have a head and neck massage at a local clinic. I spend most of my day sat at the desk in front of the computer. And sometimes the muscles in my back and neck get knotted up. I thought the massage would help (it did a bit – but now I’m back at the computer again!). I also thought the massage might help me chill out. It didn’t really do that so much. Of course, I could have a nice glass of wine this evening to help me de-stress, but as I have given up booze for the month of January, this is not an option. In fact, I was interested to read Naheed’s last blog when she said that yoga helps her to relax. I have to agree. I don’t do yoga like Naheed, but I do do Pilates (not dissimilar to yoga) and a class called BodyPump. I find that when I am exercising I don’t think about anything else – there’s no time to think about work or house-hunting. So by the end of an hour’s class I am refreshed and relaxed. My head feels clearer. Even if I’m pooped (tired), I also feel happy. There’s a saying in English that ‘a healthy body means a healthy mind’. I’d say that’s quite a wise saying.
I wonder, what do you all do to unwind at the end of a stressful day?
Have a good (and relaxing!) weekend!
Jo
P.S. The last three words in bold in my blog mean the same thing. Can you think of any other synonyms for the word ‘relax’?
Vocabulary
little bundle of joy –a newborn baby
boffins – very clever people
retain – remember
dastardly – evil, nasty
knotted up – you can use this phrase to describe muscles that feel tight and uncomfortable. You can also describe your stomach as ‘knotted up’ if you feel nervous
chill out/de-stress/unwind – all mean ‘relax’
Comments
Hi Jo, It’s good to know “language boffins have found that we can only retain about 4-5 new words at a time”. I always dream that I can remember as much English words as my Chinese words, but the dream has never come true. Every time I try to remember many words at a time, the outcome is frustrating. Now I know, 4-5 new words at a time is ok, less is more. Thank you. Best regards. James
Hello Jo. Since I were young my neck has been knotted up and nothing I did at that time would help me. In these years I used to do yoga but unfortunately I did it by myself following a book and I got worse and finally I had to give up. I'm not saying that yoga isn't good, but that you need a good coach for your training, for I thing it's really dangerous practising it by yourself, and I say this for experience. I've always been a weak person and to compensate this disadvantege, I needed to do any kind of exercise. As yoga didn't work for me, I begun to exercise, and since then I exercise for one hour every morning and also go running "about 10 km" three times a week. Now that I'm 52 years old I feel healthy despite my knotted up neck. So I've never experienced a complete relax. Not always you can get what you want. It's good to read you again. See you soon.
dear Jo,thank you for your blogging.:) .... In some way, your appearance is a kind of happiness for me . I'm not very well recently ,so I go to see the chinese doctor every Saturday ,and boid the chinese medicines at every Sunday ,they work very well .:) and I do yoga ,too, it,with the chinese medicine ,make me better now .:)
Hello, Jo! I remember so clearly the description of your village. What more chilling out do you need than walking over the hills of your village? The only massage I got lately is from my hair-dresser who also isn't from this town, and when I first came to her for a haircut, when I spoke, she recognized through my accent where I'm from and until then when she washes my hair she gives me a short massage of my head. She is wonderful! I hope you will be successful with your project for the Caribbean, it will be enough if they like you just 50 % of what we here like you.
Hi Jo. How's the new project going? I hope you all the best wishes! I went to have a body massage a couple of times several years ago. Why I went there was I felt terrible muscle pain after playing volleyball. I hadn't usually done exercise untill at that momoent and unfortunately I got a back ache as well:-( Anyway, what do I do to unwind at the end of a stressful day is taking a bath with some bath powder. Japanese take a bath every night, especially in winter many people use bath agents. There are various kinds of those in Japan. I use a moisturizing product with aroma of floral. I get in a bathtub and take a deep breath filled with milky white warm warter, not too hot, makes me really de-stress. I let the warm water warm my body for a while, maybe 15mins or 20mins. My body becomes warm from inside and my skin is moisturized. After taking a bath I stretch myself on my bed.By the way, I thought up synonyms for the word relax were take it easy, unstrain, lay back and calm (down) but calm is bit different? See you later, alligator!
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