Lovely relaxing, mindfull things that make you stressed as fuck....

[Acta]

Earlier this year, I decided to get loads of houseplants because they're meant to be calming.
Nothing has ever had me so bloody stressed...

Some died which made me sad.

Others don't look at all healthy which makes me feel useless.

Others are fine but just look at bit naff in the space I've put them which makes me feel disappointed.

Others have thrived to the point where I've had to re-pot them which has made me happy.

But that's also meant I've needed to buy new pots which makes me feel broke.

And new pots means their original pots are just hanging around now which makes me feel like my house is cluttered.

But then if I buy new plants to go in the now empty pots, I feel stressed because I worry that these new plants might die.

Ad infinitum.

In short - my plans for living among greenery, having purified air, feeling calm among living things has not fucking worked at all

Please tell me what lovely calming, relaxing, mindful things you've done which have totally backfired....

Yoga nidra.
Just ugh.

Holidays and nights away of any sort. Fucking awful.

Worry about the arrangements, worry about the animals. Just no.

The absolute best for me is a weekend at home on my own (when DH fucks off with DD). Now that is lovely and relaxing. But anyone else’s bed is always shitter than my own.

@AlltheFs I agree, other places (the ones I can afford anyway) always have rubbish sheets and sweaty duvets, even if the sheets are cotton, the duvets are nylon. Sleeping in my own bed with a hot water bottle is truly relaxing.

Part of the issue is that I have a Superking bed all to myself at home, it’s got an expensive mattress and bedding that cost more than a decent used car.

I’ve not stayed anywhere quite as relaxing as my own bed (which happens to be in a beautiful village that tourists visit) 😆

I don’t like going anywhere else.

Going to the opera / theatre
Hairdressers

Yoga! Like others. It’s just too slow and I get very bored/annoyed holding all the poses. Last time the instructor read a poem - this made me so angry as I just wanted to exercise. I even googled ‘yoga makes me angry’ when I got back from one class and apparently it’s a ‘thing’.

Pilates is everything though! Love it.

OMG ALL of the above!!

ALL of it.

Add shopping to that list. Go and wander round the shops. Fucking hate it, although tbf no-one says that's mindful.

Colouring. Hate it, always go over the lines within the first millisecond.

You remind me of ds.
When the schools restarted in September 2022 he was year 11, and they announced that the children had got so stressed over lockdown that they'd decided that they'd have two days for "mindfulness and relaxation" to help their mental health.

He got so stressed over the thought of those two days eventually I kept him off. He does have ASD and out of routine never helps but his comment of "I don't want to hold a rock, gaze at a feather and think nice thoughts. The thought makes me stressed" made me laugh.

Those head massages hairdressers sometimes do. Can anything be less relaxing than someone pressing down on your head with - more often than not - longish fingernails?

ASMR - all the noises seem specifically chosen to be as irritating as possible.

Strokey 'relaxing' massages - I'm very ticklish and don't know what they're for. I do like a proper deep tissue/Thai massage though.

The exercise bit of yoga is fine - as long as it's the flow type that keeps moving. But no whales, plinky music, or talk of chakras and energy thank you.

The only spa I've been to was Bulgarian, shortly after the fall of the Iron Curtain. It wasn't relaxing, but I don't think it was supposed to be. 'Bracing' would probably be a better description. I actually wouldn't mind another of that type, but don't fancy the wandering-aimlessly-about-in-a-bathrobe type.

So true. The whole hairdresser experience stresses me so I haven’t been for years but the head massage is always uncomfortable and unnecessary. How is that ever relaxing!

I have no pelvic floor so yoga is never going to be an option for me!

I was given a spa day as a gift. It was a bloody nightmare - scheduled meals and appointments all over the place for various rub downs and squeezings. I hated all that sitting around in a dressing gown, feeling awkward, fat and unkempt. At about 2pm I got properly dressed and went and sat in the conservatory with a cup of coffee and my book and realised I would have had a much more relaxing time sitting in the lounge of a posh hotel all day.