RIH: Relaxing Is Hard
For me, it’s all go… all the time. I find very little time (by choice) to relax and be idle in thought. Today, I found that time and thank God.
Everyday, I will attempt to create a professional, articulate, hilarious and modern take on my day of thought or action. Inspired by Casey Neistat who created a vlog everyday for 450 straight days. I will call it: 365MeThoughts
To find the acronyms that are at the top, go to my Instagram page everyday and see what the images are and see if you can figure it out…
Relaxation, time away from projects and life goals is important. I never appreciated the therapeutic value of relaxation before I had counselling for my anxiety in mid 2017.
I’ve always had that fear of being idle, alone with my own thoughts and the damage that could bring to myself. I consider myself to be mildly-creative and so I have always feared the unproductive mindset.
With that being said, post-counselling, I found two things that really helped me to relax. Golf wasn’t one of them because of the highly-competitive nature of my participation. The two things were; Boris biking (rental hire cycles in general) and car-driving.
Take the trip above. I loved driving 1000 miles in that 1972 VW Beetle. It was a dream to experience the roads, the car’s capabilities and all with the best companion. That was relaxing for me. Learning to drive the car was also relaxing. Although you have to be alert to the road and other conditions, the roar of the engine clears all thoughts. The anticipation of a gear change and the strategy involved all encapsulates my emotion and love for the manual car-driving adventure.
Update: the new car from My Dad And Me has been bought. Picking it up next Saturday. It’s be an arduous process, but I’m more than delighted with the outcome.
All of the above brings us to today. I have been on the grind this week in preparation for hopefully a successful second semester. I may have burned out if it weren’t for today. The purpose: to finally drive Adam’s car after it’s troublesome history.
My friendship with Adam spans a meagre 8.5 years. We survived secondary school and separated paths at university. We have struggled to stay in touch but communication was recently reignited by a school reunion with two of our other friends. We always got along and I remember being part of the decision-making process before he purchased this £150 machine.
He’s restored it to working condition. Enough so, that it travels between Cardiff University and our hometown area efficiently (for him, not the environment) enough. It’s a Golf Mark II 1.3L 8V, if anyone was interested. It’s been stolen and then returned, all in remarkable fashion.
Before test driving, we had lunch and caught up. It was interesting to reminisce on the antics of secondary school. The chicken runs to Morrisons, the escape to Bluewater during lunchtime (all done in my car, shall I mention) will always be fond memories.
We took it for a spin on a road littered with learner drivers near his home and it was interesting to drive a car, 17 years younger than the 1972 Beetle, with completely no power steering. It was similar to driving my car, reverse gear was in the same place and the car was responsive to gear changes. This isn’t a comprehensive review but at least Adam was proud of me for not grinding the gears.
By the time we were done with our Top Gear-like challenges, we drove on country roads in the depths of Kent. I asked Adam:
“Do you want to go on a road where we might have a collision with an ambulance?”
Obviously, Adam was hesitant but I assured him the possibility of this occurrence on a Saturday, was very slim. We drove around Redlibbets Golf Club, where there is a hospital on a hillside and a single-track road with two-way traffic. I’ve traversed this road many times in my car, but as we both scaled down the track and a SUV approached. I was in front and well versed in tackling this issue. I steered towards a harsh left-hand down into the muddy tracks made by previous drivers, negotiated terms with the oncoming driver with facial expressions and allowed for a safe passage of both mine and Adam’s car. I later found out, when we stopped, that Adam nearly skidded and hit my rear bumper as I broke sharply upon first sight of the oncoming SUV. All in a day’s work, I suppose.
I forgot how awesome my car was and sad that I only had a week left with it. I know I won’t be able to be quite as ‘reckless’ with my new car and I vow to take upmost care of the new car (to be revealed soon).
Relaxing, I have now realised is crucial to a healthy mind and sound body. It’s not always about the grind, you need that time to yourself for self-care and self-appreciation. It’s self-centred, but in a world where everyone is fighting for attention, you need some time to understand and define yourself.
I guess I should listen to the quote that made a Wiz Khalifa, who knew I would be sharing life advice from this very lyricist.
“Work hard, play hard”
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