Resolution #5: Relax

Word of the day: wor-ry (verb) To torment oneself with or suffer from disturbing thoughts; fret.

If it's good enough for Frankie Goes to Hollywood, it's good enough for me.  I need to learn to relax more.  Not that I'm not already the queen of laziness.  Oh, believe me, I win at lethargy.  It's more that I need to learn to not freak out and get worked up about things, whether they're big or little or somewhere in between.  I need to be able to chill out more and just take things in stride.  More importantly, I need to learn to not dwell on things that have happened and worry what people might be thinking about me because of something I said or did or didn't say or didn't do.

(There are things that happened years ago that I still think about and that still make me feel all anxious because of how I acted or what someone might have thought at the time.  I'm talking about things that happened in university.  I graduated in 2002, just to put it in perspective.)

There are certain things in my life that help me relax.  Like crossword puzzles.  I am so at peace when filling in those little white squares with the correct letter and I feel so proud and so complete when I gaze lovingly at my finished puzzle, all done in capital letters and in ink.  (Yes, I'm a crossword puzzle snob who flat out refuses to use pencil.)  So I shall do more crossword puzzles.

The beau's cat also helps me destress.  When that sweet little cat face appears at the side of the couch and she just looks at me and then gently pads over to my lap to curl up and start purring like a feline lawn mower, well, my brain melts and suddenly the only thing that matters is making sure I scratch her chin just right.  While I generally only see her on weekends, those are pretty great weekends so I'll have to be sure to keep that up.

And - what do you know? - working out also helps with the relaxing.  Doesn't that tie in so nicely with the running resolution?  Even if the running doesn't pan out, I'll just make sure to keep going to the gym.  If I can do this right, I'll be the most blissed-out person by the time 2011 rolls around.

Resolution #5, then, is to R-E-L-A-X.  Of course, if none of my other tactics work, I'll be able to justify shelling out for an all-inclusive trip so some swanky Caribbean spa.