We have had to learn all our lives. Now we need to learn how to relax.
Think about how much we've had to learn over a lifetime.
We learned how to do our jobs. How to raise families. How to pay mortgages, use computers, navigate relationships, cook, drive, manage money and somehow keep up with technology that changes every five minutes.
We've become pretty good at doing.
But perhaps there's something else we need to learn after 60.
How to relax.
And I don't necessarily mean sitting still doing nothing.
So what does relaxation look like after 60?
At this stage of life, perhaps we need to rediscover — or even learn — what actually restores us.
For one person that's sitting quietly with a book. For somebody else it's standing beside a river trying to catch a trout. Someone disappears into the shed. Someone paints. Someone gardens. Someone learns chess.
And apparently someone else watches people being pursued through dark forests by supernatural entities. 👻
The important thing is:
We don't have to be good at it.
And we definitely don't need to turn it into another wellness target.
I'm actually working on my own relaxation at the moment. I'm learning chess, in a fun way through Duolingo. I'm planning to have a go at watercolour painting — gum trees rather than masterpieces — and thinking more deliberately about what I enjoy doing simply because I enjoy doing it.
Maybe that's the challenge for this stage of life.
Find your thing.
And whatever you do, don't turn it into another KPI. 🤦♀️
