10 Tips on how to relax and de-stress after the Holidays

Updated April 2018

All of us here at the Bird Rock Hotel wish you a very happy and healthy New Year.  Another year, another holiday season and we are all still here and ready to start the new year off right with these tips on how to relax and de-stress after the holidays:

1. Come to San Juan Island for a relaxing weekend

You might feel like hunkering down after all the holiday expenses. Please don’t. Instead, treat yourself to a weekend getaway by yourself or with a loved one. Remind yourself of what you like to do, eat, listen to. Be a little selfish, it’ll make you a better person, partner and parent.

2. Sleep

Stress often interferes with restful sleep. Our tight everyday schedules don’t leave much room for a good night’s sleep or an afternoon nap, even though we know, that only deep sleep replenishes the body’s resilience and health. Plan on sleeping in when on your island getaway. Our beds are famously comfortable. Take a nap before going out for dinner or after being pampered at the Spa. Listen to your body and let it rest.

3. Move

You don’t have to sign up for a body sculpting class twice a week or buy a treadmill. Just move. Take in the deserted, stunning island beaches after the season is over. Listen to the waves, breath the fresh, salty air, focus your eyes on the horizon, the snow-covered Olympic Mountains and just put one foot in front of the other. A half hour of walking improves your health and well-being for the next 12 hours.

4. Get a massage

We carry stress in our bodies. Get rid of last year’s worries and regenerate and relax with a massage or body treatment at the Spa at Earthbox, tailored just to your needs. Feel the tension melt away and the aches and pains dissipate. Make it a couple’s massage for an especially re-connecting experience.

5. Do one thing at a time

Yes, you are a multi-tasker and you are awesome at it. The thing is though, you are not really doing twelve things at once. You are doing twelve things, constantly interrupting yourself, tasking your attention and sense of accomplishment. Try to do one thing at a time. When you board the ferry to come visit us, try to just be on the ferry--don’t email, read, play a video game, make dinner reservations. Instead, watch the ocean and the serene, wooded islands pass by. Watch your fellow passengers. Be on that ferry now.

6. Write Thank-You notes

Buy some beautiful cards, painted by our talented island artists, at the Pelindaba Lavender Store or the Island Studios, sit in a café overlooking quaint Friday Harbor and write your holiday Thank-You notes. Enclose a hand-drawn silly picture or a pretty leaf. Focus your mind on the sweet people in your life who thought of you and yours. Feel how loved and connected you are.

7. Make an “if-I-could-do-anything” list

If money, time, external circumstances didn’t matter, what would you like to do? Learn how to play the guitar? Get involved in saving the Orca Whales? Visit Italy? Move to Costa Rica? Learn how to knit? Write it down. In order to learn something new, change your life, become the person you want to be, you first need to know what it is you want. You will be amazed how, once you’ve expressed your wishes, opportunities will present themselves and doors will open.

8. Make a gratitude list

Stress gives us tunnel vision. Our minds tend to circle around the things we don’t want, the people we are in conflict with, the situations we don’t feel we have control over. Focus on the things and people you are grateful for. Leave your gratitude list by the bed and read it right before you go to sleep or first thing in the morning.You will be amazed how just this one activity can change your life.

9. Laugh

Laughter really is the best medicine. Humor is one of the best coping skills to have. When visiting Friday Harbor, catch a funny movie at the historic Palace Theater or catch a show at the San Juan Community Theatre. Re-tell a hilarious story from your life and allow yourself to laugh out loud.

10. Enjoy some alone time

Having a job and a family, being a partner, friend and parent, juggling time, money and other people’s needs sometimes leaves you empty and exhausted. Schedule some You-Time on your island getaway. Go to the beach or the museum by yourself. Buy something just for you as a symbol that you took time for yourself, a new purse, a pair of earrings. Find your rhythm. Eat when you want to eat. Stay or go when you want to stay or go. Enjoy being bored or not knowing what you want to do, recognize your feelings and thoughts. Treat yourself with the same kindness and care you treat other people. You deserve it.