2024, Family, Kids, Uncategorized

Just Relax!

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I find it ironic that today is both National Relaxation Day and National Rollercoaster Day. Neither of those things go together!

The last time I was on a rollercoaster or similar ride was almost 41 years ago on our honeymoon. We spent a week in Minneapolis-St. Paul after the wedding, which coincided with the Minnesota State Fair. Husband was insistent that we go on a ride on the midway. He chose a rather adventurous one, and, wanting to please, I agreed reluctantly to go on the ride. I hated it, I refused to scream like the others, and was pale and almost ill when the ride ended. He has never insisted that we go on any more rides together. I think the only other rides he went on were with our children.

I don’t know when I stopped liking carnival rides. I loved them as a child. I was 25 when I married, so it sure didn’t last long. As for relaxation, I am a constant worrier and pretty anxious most of the time. I can teach other people to relax, as I have done that for a living for almost as long as I have been married. People seem to like deep breathing exercises. In a pinch, holding a bag of frozen veggies also works for intense anxiety. My children both frequently thank me for passing down the Generalized Anxiety Disorder gene to them. I just smile and grab a bag of frozen corn.

What was the last carnival ride you went on? How do you relax? Who is the least anxious person you know?

28 thoughts on “Just Relax!”

  1. Aside from kiddie rides, like the carousel, that I have gone on with the grandkids, I think the last time I’ve been on roller coasters and similar high velocity rides is when I took my nephew to Valley Fair about 2006. Rides like that don’t bother me but I don’t seek them out either.

    I think I am probably the least anxious person I know, but then I don’t have any precise way of estimating anyone else’s anxieties outside of the ones they might demonstrate or express.

    I’d be interested to know the distinction between anxiety and antipathy. There are things I don’t enjoy and therefore avoid but not, I think, from anxiety.

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  2. Anxiety is based in fear and has the action urge of avoidance for safety. Antipathy is dislike and the action urge produced is disinterest and disengagement (really no action urge at all) and safety is not perceived as impaired.

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    2. I think of anxiety as a more or less persistent state that attaches itself to objects and events but is not provoked expressly by those triggers. When the trigger resolves, the anxiety moves on to another target.

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  3. I have never ridden on carnival rides beyond tilt-a-whirl. Ferris Wheel only once. The point just escapes me. Sandra used to enjoy Ferris Wheels and such but never did rollercoasters or the like. Our children love them. When we were in San Diego and all went to Disneyland, I stayed back and did pleinair painting. All that walking and standing would have been pain. A waste of money. When my grandchildren were up to about age 11, they were often picked to go up on stage for shows, like picking a wand at Olivanders.
    I fight anxiety and stress over Sandra. Why I do meditation. Quite sure why I have a pacemaker. But as Bill suggests, my mind hunts out things about which to be anxious. It’s a family gene.
    Clyde

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  4. Last carnival ride: Probably a carousel. For many years I loved roller coasters, the Scrambler, the water rides at Valleyfair, the swings, really almost any ride that didn’t spin. These days I would ride the carousel (with a horse that goes up and down), the swings, and water rides (log flume, lazy river, Thunder Canyon, water slides – but not the speed slides). I still like roller coasters but they give me a headache so I avoid them.

    Relax: Play piano, read, kayak (early morning on a quiet lake), walk.

    Least anxious: Perhaps one of my cousins. I don’t get anxious about too many things.

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  5. I may have only been on a big roller coaster once, and that was enough. I remember The Wild Mouse at Elitch’s in Denver, circa 1958, where it made a sudden 90 turn just as you thought you were going off into the stratosphere, and that was enough of that sort of thing. I liked the tilt-a-whirl till I started to get queasy when riding. So my last ride would have been a ferris wheel.

    I use that “legs up at 90 degrees” exercise to relax. It’s my form of meditation at this point.
    Husband is the least anxious person I know.

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  6. Are women more prone to anxiety or does their anxiety just take different forms than anxiety in men? You never hear, for example, about toxic feminimity.

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      1. Perhaps we do, but it is named other things–take the Barbie Doll, for example. Not anatomically correct, but reflects an image that is defined as desirable. Some women try to look like that, wearing clothing that damages their bodies. Extremely high heels or corsets, for example.

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        2. I have a friend who has always been very pretty. We’ve been friends for many years and she’s always been very attractive. She spends a lot of time on her hair and makeup though – something I’ve never done. She doesn’t want to be seen if she hasn’t fixed herself up, even on a FaceTime call. It’s just horrible to her. I’m really glad I never got into the cosmetics and hair habits. Take me as I am.

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  7. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    It is not a relaxing day here–I am turning in re-imbursement invoices to long term care which makes me irritable on the second try when the procedures are not clearly defined in their instructions. GRRRR.

    Barb in Winona, I saw the renovated Arnolds Park over the last weekend, including the roller coaster. I swear that 60 years ago that roller coaster was much, much larger! Could it have shrunk in that time?

    I probably was on a carousel in the last 20 years, but that would be it. As a kid I loved all the rides, but my fear increased with age, and with some motion sickness. I am sure my last exciting ride was during Son’s childhood.

    I relax by listening to an audio book and playing a card game on my ipad. This works as long as the book is non-suspenseful.

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  8. I enjoy my morning meditation and coffee. It’s really relaxing to me to just enter the day slowly and with gratitude. Solitude is relaxing for me, if I’m not too busy. Crocheting, writing, and breathing exercises all work well to help me relax.

    I’m thinking about the people I know and have known in the past. Almost everyone I know has some level of anxiety. My uncle (my mom’s sister’s husband) was a pretty relaxed guy. He’s the one who was an engineer and spent his entire career in exotic places: Hawaii, Palau, Yap, Guam, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. He was a very positive role model for my brothers and I, and a wonderful husband for my highly anxious aunt.

    It seems to me that awareness of your own anxiety and triggers is helpful in managing it. I know what triggers me, and sometimes I just choose peace of mind over a social situation which can really make me anxious. I also know that breathing exercises really help me.

    WP has already eaten one of my posts. This is my second attempt. If it doesn’t work, I’m outa here.

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  9. I’ve never been crazy about carnival rides. I don’t like the really tall ones. I don’t like the ones that spin me around and make me nauseous. The last time I went on many carnival rides was when I took YA to Disney World. She was seven and that meant that all the rides that we went on were appropriate for a seven-year-old and that was about right for me.

    The most memorable ride I’ve been on was out at Valleyfair. YA was 12 or 13 and it was the opening season for what I believe is still called The Viper. She really really wanted to go on it. It was crowded so we stood in line for about a half an hour to get on this ride, which turned out to be my salvation. It went up one side, came down, went up another side and when it got to the top of the second side, it stopped for a little bit and shook — like the tail of a venomous snake. If I had not witnessed it ahead of time that it was going to stop and shake, I might have just expired on the spot when it happened. That was actually the last ride of any kind I’ve ever been on.

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  10. The last time I was on a carnival ride was about five years ago or so. It was The Scrambler, which has been around since I was a kid. It doesn’t involve heights, and it doesn’t make you dizzy. Just moves very fast, and it continually looks like you’re going to collide with another car, but you know you won’t.

    I am wondering what it is about frozen veggies that relieves anxiety.

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  11. I’m a fairly relaxed person, I think, though I’ll admit to feeling anxious about the outcome of the next election. I console myself that no matter the outcome, I’ll probably not live long enough to see the consequences in any meaningful way, one way or the other.

    I used to love all kinds of carnival rides. Everything from roller coasters, to merry-go-rounds, Ferris wheels, tilt-a-whirls, bumper cars and water slides. I haven’t been on any such ride in decades. The last one I was on was probably the large slide you go down on burlap sacs at the State Fair, probably at least thirty-five years ago.

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  13. I used to like roller coasters and crazy rides. And daughter is a daredevil who has no fear. But last year when we did some at the Mall of America, I couldn’t take them so much. I guess my days on those rides are over.

    It depends; I can remain calm about a lot of stuff, yet get anxious over finding a parking spot or some random thing. I don’t know anyone who I would say is calmest.

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