Art, Health, Media, Nature, Technology, Uncategorized, Weather

It’s Raining

29 Comments

For a couple of years now, I have used some relaxing piano/bird song background music during the day as a way to relax and keep my balance at work.  It’s the same musical theme (YouTube) and it repeats and repeats.  There are days when I have it playing on my headset for most of the day.

No need to go into this in detail, but suffice it to say that the last two weeks have been the most stressful I have ever endured in the travel industry.  I realized on Friday that even my pretty piano & bird compilation wasn’t quite doing it.  So I went searching and found this:

I don’t look at the actual video – not much to see – but I’ve been listening to the rain almost constantly (when I’m not on calls or being accosted in my cube about something).  It is actually very calming – not sure why the sound of softly falling rain relaxes me, but it does.  In fact, this morning I accidentally closed down the browser that is playing the rain and I immediately tensed up and hurried to get it back.

Apparently there is an app that goes along with this soothing sound, but it doesn’t look like anything I would really like or use, so I guess I’ll just stick with the YouTube rain for now.

What helps you relax?   Or are you already relaxed enough?

29 thoughts on “It’s Raining”

  1. I can’t imagine how stressful this time must be for you, VS. Listening to classical music helps me relax. It is sleeping that vexes me. I struggle with insomnia, and my thoughts are usually buzzing along at quite a pace as I try to fall asleep. I slow my brain down as I lie in bed by reciting the US states and Canadian provinces in alphabetical order. That usually puts me to sleep by the time I get to Idaho. If that doesn’t work, I then start with Argentina, and think of all the countries in the world that start with the letter A, and move on down the alphabet. I am usually asleep by the time I get to the C’s.

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        1. If work is what is causing the insomnia, you could try what I do when external concerns interfere with sleep. Ask yourself, “What would they do without me?” One day, not too far off, they will be without you and they’ll get by somehow (or they won’t but that’s out of your control.)

          Start practicing for your retirement by being retired when you’re not at work.

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  2. I try to protect my equanimity. It helps that I am no longer in a work environment and forced to deal with others’ anxieties and expectations, but even outside of that if you allow yourself to soak up everything that comes at you on a daily basis, I don’t know how one would ever achieve calm. The news and commentaries on the news as well as the pace of things in the workplace carry an unwarranted and short-term urgency that is unsettling to one’s equilibrium, especially if you are personally geared toward a longer view and a realistic understanding of what is really within your power to influence. Of course, one person’s calm can be another’s phlegmatic and a relaxed response might be perceived by others as maddeningly unreactive.

    When I say I protect my equanimity, I mean I have a sense of what is pointlessly agitating to me and I consciously manage it. In general, I get my news through reading it rather than through broadcasts, the broadcasters often imbuing an urgency to whatever they are reading that the subject may not really deserve. I likewise am sensitive to any cultural inputs that feel more quickly paced than my natural rhythms and more insistent than I am ready to allow them. In adopting the long view over the short one, I find reading a lot of history helps.

    I don’t generally have any problem with insomnia. My means of putting myself to sleep if it doesn’t come naturally in a few minutes is not to fill my mind with prosaic or monotonous data but rather to empty my mind as completely as I can, to put it in a state of blank receptivity. The way I do that is, with my eyes shut, to allow myself to see whatever appears. I don’t control it—I simply witness it. What usually appears are patterns, geometric and in limited schemes of harmonious colors, often two dimensional but sometimes three, with intricate modeling and shading. The patterns are not something I could or would consciously concoct and, importantly, they carry no underlying meaning. They don’t need invention or interpretation. Usually after one or two of these subconscious patterns, I am asleep.

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        1. I think of it like watching a fireworks display—you’re looking into the blank sky waiting for whatever comes without any control of what it will be or when.

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  3. I find my stress-related lumbar stiffness and pain is returning. The only thing that cured that was smudging sage. I think I may do that at home this evening.

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    1. Last night I worked my studio which is pretty unusual for a weeknight, But I really needed it. For lovely shaker cards in the shape of coffee cups.

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  5. I have certain favorite music that is relaxing for the indoors months. In the warmer months, if I can sit outside and listen to birdsong, I do find that relaxing.

    It’s rare to have that come together, though. Usually, the times I get really stressed out are not times when I can get myself to sit down and do these things. My newish candle-lighting time in the morning helps me plan my day, so next time there’s a lot of stress, I’ll see if I can fit in some mid-day quiet time.

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  6. Morning-
    The rain thing. It surprised me when I first heard about it as it never dawned on my how relaxing rain is. Just last week at the college, there was talk of having a session during staff day for ‘relaxation’ and could the theater be utilized to play the sounds and even have “lightning” flashes on occasion. Don’t know if that will all come to pass or not.

    I listen to music to relax. Most nights I fall asleep without issue, but when I can’t, I’ll turn on some music and I think it just helps my mind to slow down and focus on the music and I’m out.
    I also do some energy exercises we’ve learned. Moving my hands over myself in a figure 8 pattern. Or even just imagining moving my hands. Partially, it’s also something to help my mind focus.

    Election news: Both John and I were re-elected unanimously with 70 votes each. A really good turn out for an uncontested race. I am humbled.

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      1. There was some suspicion of a possible write in candidate. And while that would have been sneaky and underhanded, you never know what some people might stoop too for their own (misguided) gain. But generally, township politics doesn’t get that deceitful which is good. I hereby swear I did not spend over $750 on my reelection campaign. Had to sign an affidavit of that.

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  7. I’ve been thinking of you, vs, and the business you’re in. Can only imagine how precarious and uncertain everything is. Clearly we all need to be properly informed about covid-19, and keep our wits about us.

    Selfishly, I’m currently focused on my next scheduled surgery on March 17th. Funny how three weeks ago I was concerned that I’d miss the annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration. Now, it’s a day to day wait and see situation. My daily mediation is instrumental in keeping panic at bay.

    I love how Bill describes his “visions” when closing his eyes. Matches what I experience perfectly. It’s a gift.

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      1. It could be, but it’s not. Having had a mother who trusted the medical establishment to fix her brokenness, I know first hand that chemicals and even electroshock therapy was not the answer, at least not for her.

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  10. Late this afternoon I discovered that the Calm YouTube site also has a thunderstorm track. It’s a far off thunderstorm, not a loud and crashing down trees in your backyard thunderstorm. And it’s very nice. So now I have an alternative to my rain.

    Thanks everyone for the kind wishes.

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  11. I don’t know if this will be relaxing, but I actually ordered a novel to read, Tyll, by Daniel Kehlmann, about Tyll Eulenspigel, northern Germany (where my family comes from), the 30 years War, history, and magic. I have only read one new book in the past 5 years (since my father died), and the New Yorker gave it a great review. I am ready to read.

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