Want to relax? Start uni-tasking. Don’t recognize that word? That’s because it’s a lost art—the art of doing one thing at a time.
In an age when we have created lifestyles that necessitate doing five things at once, it seems that we’ve lost the ability to do just one. As a result, we can’t relax. We can’t sit still. We can’t do one thing without thinking and feeling like we should be doing three others. To truly relax, you must learn to just relax—nothing else.
Here’s something you can try. Sit in a chair and focus on a simple image: a candle, a flower, or a beautiful scene you can vividly recall, perhaps from a vacation. Just sit with that image in mind while breathing calmly. Don’t be surprised if your thoughts wander to other things; that’s completely normal. Just keep bringing your focus back to your pleasant image. Do that for twenty minutes at least once per day. At first, it will be difficult and the twenty minutes may seem like an hour. After practicing daily for a few weeks, the twenty minutes will go by in a blink and you’ll start to feel much more relaxed.