July 2011
25 posts
Treat yourself to an imaginary massage.
Suggested Instructions:
1. Lie down in bed in a comfortable position. Get as comfortable as you possibly can.
2. Take a few deep breaths. Relax your body.
3. Imagine hands massaging you. Be as detailed as possible; try to really feel the hands on your skin, the movement of your muscles. Smell the oil. Focus on sore areas, areas where there are tension, areas you love to be touched.
4. Take as long as you like. Linger over the experience. When you are done, slowly wake up your body. Wriggle your fingers and toes. Open your eyes.
Or, if you like, allow yourself to drift off to sleep. Or go on to the next imaginary experience.
~
Optional additions:
- music
- aromatherapy oils
Nap with a friend.
Animal friends are especially good nap buddies.
Validate someone - in text, on the web, or by phone.
Watch a silent film to a soundtrack of your favourite music.
A list of silent films available for free at archive.org
“We must live in the little, the little world. We should be content with that and cultivate it and make the best of it. It is necessary and not in the least shameful, to take pleasure in good food, gentle smiles, fruit trees in bloom, waltzes.”
— from Fanny and Alexander by Ingmar Bergman.
Watch the play of light and shadows on the wall.
Click a link.
An article on things you can do from bed by Toni Bernhard, author of How to Be Sick.
And a follow-up article, with suggestions from her readers of even more things you can do from bed.
Read yourself a bedtime story.
Listen to TED Talks.
Find them at TED.com
Yawn and stretch extravagantly.
“You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”
—Franz Kafka, Aphorisms.
Enjoy the sounds of words as you say them.
Words that are fun to say:
- gobbledygook
- prestidigitation
- imbroglio
- mellifluous
- onomatopoeia
- vuvuzela
- trollop
- dongle
Spend an hour with nothing but a music player on shuffle.
Pay attention to your breath.
Wear colourful socks.
