What does it mean to relax? I think the definition is different for different people. For some people, to relax means to do absolutely nothing, while for others, it means doing what you want to do, when and how you want to do it. Vacation is usually supposed to be a time of relaxing, but some of us have a hard time with that, because we are not so good at gearing down.

At it’s most simple level, I believe relaxation is “Letting go of frustration, so that peace may grab hold of us.” This requires us to do our part, so that we might experience the good that is already around us. Letting go is hard, until you realize that control is actually only an illusion anyway. We are never really in control. We feel like we are in control and when we feel this way, everything is just wonderful. But the greatest control is learning to let go of the need for control, since we never really truly possess it anyway.

To let go of control, we have to step away, look within and learn to listen to the silence. It is hard to step away, but that is what “vacation” is about. Stepping away from business as usual. And the beautiful thing, is that we can do this without even having to leave the room. Learning to look within and focus on what is going on inside of us, while not being distracted by all that is whizzing by outside of us requires practice and discipline, but once we begin to get it, we are on our way to a much better place and way of living. Silence is scary for most folks. Most people have to have noise of some sort blaring all the time, but silence is a beautiful ting that teaching us a new way of hearing and learning to listen to your silence opens up a whole new world of experiences.

Viktor E. Frankl, in his classic book: “Man’s Search For Meaning “ says “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” You have been given the amazing gift of being able to choose your attitude. I want to challenge you to choose to let go of the illusion of control. I want to challenge you to choose to STEP AWAY from doing life and treating every moment as business as usual. I want to challenge you to learn to LOOK WITHIN and discover all of the amazing blessings that flow from the inside-out. I want to challenge you to LISTEN TO THE SILENCE and truly begin to hear the tings that will change your life and living for the better and more amazing blessing.

Real relaxation is an amazing gift and a vacation is something you can have more than just one time in the summer. Relaxation and vacation is something that you can live, grow and thrive in everyday of your human experience, so live blessed, laugh loud, learn everyday and love always…