Swimming a great relaxation source

A swim should leave you relaxed and comfortable; if it does not, you have stayed in the water too long. Take a shorter swim next time.  Long swim, have someone row along beside you or go with and long good swimmer. And be sure both of you know life-saving technique. 

The most expert swimmer can get a cramp-and if he does, he would drag you down unless you know how to avoid desperate clutches and how to tow him to shore. No matter how well you swim, stay close to shore if you are swimming to an isolated spot. Any races you may have won in high school or college will not protect you against cramps.

Don't try to swim a long distance the first few times out. Your swimming muscles may have lost strength through inaction; give them time to get strong again before you tackle rapid currents, heavy seas, or long distances. Before diving in a new place, test the water for depth and hidden logs or rocks. Lakes and rivers change in depth depending upon rainfall; md in salt water, high and low tides have to be considered. 

Find out for yourself whether your dive should be a shallow one-rather than risk a broken neck. If you have trouble with sinuses or ears, give up diving and under-water swimming. Excessive water in the nose may wash away secretions that help protect against infection.

In addition, infections may wash into the sinuses through the nose or may even reach the middle ear through the Eustachian passage from the throat. 

vacations help to destress and give relaxation to your muscles and brain

Still others benefit by arrangements that allow them to enjoy a series of four-day or five-day vacations, taken perhaps four times the more each year. 1f it is possible for you to have such flexibility, it could be well worth-while. 

Before You Go on Vacation It's a good idea to see your doctor before you go off on an extended vacation-so you won't have to see him after it is over. In fact, just before a vacation can be an especially suitable time for having your regular periodic checkup.

For one thing, your doctor can tell you how much and what kind of exercise you should undertake. If he finds you are not in condition to climb mountains or play tennis, you can select a place where you won't be tempted to engage in such activities. You will have more fun perhaps lying on a beach or sitting in a boat pulling in fish. 

Deciding where to go on your vacation can be important if you have a health problem such as hay fever, for example. Your doctor can advise about avoiding certain places at certain seasons. If you have a heart or lung problem, he can advise about altitudes and their possible effects.

Tell your physician not only where you plan to go but how you will get thereby train, plane, ship, or car. If you have any tendency to motion sickness, your physician can prescribe medication to help prevent it. Depending upon where you plan to go and the availability there of medical facilities, your physician may suggest that you take along a first-aid kit. 

A minimum one, under some conditions, might include the following items, and your physician can provide prescriptions for those that require them: Aspirin-for headache, fever, muscle aches and pains Antiseptic, such as hydrogen peroxide, tincture of iodine, or benzalkonium chloride Skin lotion-to protect against sunburn and windburn Anti-Nauseant for motion sickness Antacid-for mild stomach upset Sedative for emotional upset, overstimulation, or nervous upset Broad-spectrum antibiotic-effective against a wide range of bacteria, in case of serious illness; to be selected by your physician and used precisely as he instructs container of small bandages Sterilized gauze squares Roll of adhesive tape, one-half inch wide A pectinkaolate compound such as Kaopectate, or paregoric, or Lomotil for diarrhea and "tourist trots" 

HOBBIES AND OTHER RECREATION as relaxation tecniques

HOBBIES AND OTHER RECREATION

Recreation-refreshment of the strength and spirit after toil-is an extremely broad term. It covers physical activities which can be as vigorous as one likes, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, quiet activities Relaxation. It covers solitary activities and group activities. 

It covers. Cultural activities which can be considered creative and, for a while; it also covers activities that some may consider trivial that any activity which provides recreation cannot be dismissed as a utility. It is a common observation among physicians that patients who have developed hobbies and learned to enjoy recreational activities build to be healthier as well as happier.

And there is nothing trivial about that, ideally, each individual should have an indoor hobby and an outdoor one, both capable of providing genuine satisfaction. Some people prefer 10 change hobbies every year or two and even to relate their indoor and outdoor activities-so that, for example, one year archery may be the outdoor hobby and Indian art the indoor diversion, the next year the combination may be sailing and ship models. 

Others prefer to be casual, about choosing and staying with their hobbies. Hobbies need not be expensive. Some, such as gardening and refinishing old furniture, may be, in fact, more than pay for themselves.

In selecting hobbies, look for those you will really enjoy. Don't be like a businessman who, years ago, because his doctor had advised taking up a hobby, began to collect stamps. Dutifully he kept on collecting them though for him it was a bore. It took many years for him to realize that what he really wanted to do was to paint and that he had been mistaken in thinking that painting would be no suitable hobby for a man in his position.

Today he belongs, with great enjoyment, to a growing group of amateur "Sunday artists." Pick your hobby without regard to what others like or dislike, without regard to what may be fashionable or to what may seem to have some kind of "status." It should be something you like and want to do, something interesting, satisfying, relaxing for you. 

It is worth noting here that adult education is increasingly popular. It provides for some people opportunity to complete degree requirements. For others, it offers opportunities for learning about hobbies and even for acquiring new knowledge or skill for its own sake, as a hobby in itself.

Newspapers and magazines are full of advertisements and notices of adult education courses in colleges and universities. Your local public school board may also offer adult evening courses, ranging from arts and crafts to languages, current events, science, philosophy, and psychology. One of them is almost certain to appeal to you. 

What is relaxation and how to acheive it?

HOW TO ACHIEVE RELAXATION

Someone has remarked that the doctor who tells a tense, nervous, high- strung person to relax might just as well tell him to stop breathing. But the art of relaxation can be learned. If the guidelines we give you here do not work, then some form of treatment is required. It may consist of a few talks with your sympathetic physician or, in extreme cases of compulsive inability to relax, may require psychotherapy.

Any medical advice must take account of individual differences. No two people react precisely the same way to a prescription for digitalis or other medicine. Similarly, there is a tremendous difference in the way people relax; in what makes them relax, in how much relaxation they take, in how much of a toll work takes from them. We know two surgeons who work the same long hours from 8:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. with some night calls. Yet one ends the week rested, happy, and ready to enjoy a fun weekend; the other ends the week a bundle of nerves, with a body so tired that it takes until Monday morning before he has recovered his stamina for the week ahead. We know two business partners, one of whom returns from a month's vacation perfectly rested while the other returns from his vacation more fatigued than when he left. To achieve suitable relaxation, each person must take an inventory of need.

One chronically fatigued person we know did so and learned that his really effective work span-the time he could work at peak efficiency and without fatigue-was only four hours. He rescheduled his life, put a couch in his office, and with an hour's rest every four hours has increased his work output and become thoroughly relaxed. Consciously or unconsciously, a relaxed person has carried out an inventory and knows when rest and change of pace are needed during his daily work. Some men like to spend part of their lunch hour at a gym or athletic club, taking a swim or engaging in other physical activity; others prefer a nap or a book; still others thrive on luncheon with friends. There is an almost endless variety to activities that can provide restful, relaxing change of pace during the day. It's the change that is important-and at the end of the day as well.

The sedentary worker may benefit from a long walk or some jogging or other physical activity; on the other hand, the person whose work is physically demanding may need a quiet hour, stretched out, perhaps napping briefly, or listening to the radio or watching TV. Some fathers find relaxation with their children; others need to be insulated from the demands of the children-and possibly from any of the wife-when they arrive home. The housewife, too, is entitled to, and no less needs, change of pace. And it doesn't matter what the change involves, so long as it is restful and relaxing to the individual woman. A break for coffee or tea! Fine. A pause to watch a favorite TV program, call a friend, read a magazine or book-all good if the individual finds them rewarding.

No less than the man who works away from home, the woman who works at the demanding job of running a home and caring for children needs to make her inventory of need and find activities that diminish her fatigue and renew her zest. And for both man and woman, important elements in relaxation are recreational activities, sports, and vacations. 

Importance of rest and relaxation

A better understanding of the importance of rest and relaxation has been made possible by advances in neurophysiology providing new in- sights into what happens in the central nervous system. Investigators have been able to establish-by actually picking out the structures in animals and stimulating them with electric currents-that there are structures which have a damping or inhibitory effect and are in fatigue, and there are other structures which make up a system. 

If we sum up the vast amount of Neuro-physiological research, we fit this picture: An individual's mood-his ability to perform-at the given time depends on the degree of activity of the two systems. Inhibitory system dominates, the individual is in a state of fatigue; in the activating system dominates; he is ready to step up performance. This concept of fatigue helps to explain many symptoms otherwise difficult to understand.

All of us know, for example, that a feeling of tiredness can often disappear immediately if something unexpected happens or if a piece of intelligence or train of thought produces an emotional change. In such cases, the activating system is being stimulated. But if the surroundings are monotonous, if we are bored by what we are doing, the pitch of the activating system is lowered and the inhibitory system is in the ascendancy. 

And it is this that explains the fatigue that ran occurs in monotonous situations even when there is no stress. Monotony, by definition, is a wearisome sameness, a lack of change in the variety. And whatever the work we do, it can be considered monotonous work if it goes on without pause or change of pace.

We all are aware of the need for a good night's sleep, but too few of us recognize the need for rest and relaxation during the day. Many of us businessmen, professional people, and others-who not only work hard but are under heavy stress could live more comfortably without sacrificing efficiency-indeed, with increased efficiency-and probably live longer if we managed to take breaks during the day and take them without guilty consciences. 

Work stress and Relaxation Tecniques

Work stress and Relaxation Tecniques

Many things enter into the art of living, and relaxation is certainly one of them. It is valuable not only in and of itself for the enjoyment of life but also as a means of preventing undue physical fatigue, boredom, and tension, and for actually making work easier and 'more enjoyable. Ours is an age of rapid change, of increasing complexity in social and industrial organization. We are busier with mental and less with physical work. We live at a faster pace. 

There are more and more challenges and opportunities-and perhaps, more and more stresses, pressures and, deadlines. How people react to stress depends, of course, upon very many things, and certainly included among them are general health, physical fitness, fatigue, and emotional well-being. And relaxation is an important influence on all of these.

Almost everyone knows from experience that pronounced tiredness from day to day can, if extended, produce chronic fatigue. When this occurs, the weariness sensations are intensified, appearing not only at the end of a day but during the day and even early in the morning. Along with the weariness, there may be increased irritability, a tendency to lapse into depression or blue moods, a general lack of drive and loss of initiative. Many people have the idea that they can't afford to take time for rest and relaxation, that in the modern world it's essential to work long and hard or you won't keep up. 

But this is to overlook, for one thing, the relationship between performance and working hours. While more studies are needed of the relationship between mental work performance and working hours, there are guidelines to be found in the many investigations carried out in factories.

They have shown repeatedly that when working time is shortened, hourly performance improves, whereas lengthening the work period has the opposite effect. In many cases it has been observed that after more than ten hours of work, overall performance falls off decidedly, because the slowing down of working speed due to fatigue is not compensated for by the longer period worked. Longer working schedules are frequent in wartime and boom conditions. 

But the overtime worked often proves of little value because productivity fails to increase to the extent that was expected. Various studies have shown that overtime work not only cuts down on performance per hour but also leads to a characteristic increase in absence due to illness and accidents.