Relaxation....HA!

Over the past couple weeks I have had to use the computer at my Mom and Dad's house, this caused a great deal of stress once my classes started. I found it very difficult to work at their home because I felt obligated to visit or help them around the house, plus my parents like to lurk and watch what I am doing or stand around and chat while I am trying to read. The stress increased when I discovered that my class drop boxes would not work on my parent's computer, I think it had something to do with the fact that they had a virus on their computer a few weeks ago and took it in to be fixed. Today we finally got our desk top computer back and the Internet is back on. I thought that my stress level would surely be reduced and I was very happy to discover that the drop boxes worked once again. While I worked to catch up on my work I felt some stress decrease but as the day progressed and children came home from school the stress levels started to hit the roof. I felt more than ready to practice the Journey to Relaxation exercise for my class. I made myself comfortable in my desk chair and started the exercise. At first everything was going great. I even felt my arms get heavy and warm. I thought it was funny that the baby (I am 20 week pregnant) seemed to become more active when I started to get into the exercise. That was about as far as the relaxation got for me. My husband came home from work and wanted to talk, I paused the exercise and told him I was doing homework. I started the exercise back up as hubby made his way to the shower. Within seconds I am trying to pull my three year old from my lap while he tries to tell me some story about super heroes. I talk him into telling his story to his older brother, rewind the exercise and try again. This time I never make it to the warm heavy arms because World War 3 breaks out in the kitchen as my two oldest boys are arguing over who is going to wash and who is going to dry the dishes, while the three year old proceeds to throw cookie cutters onto the kitchen floor. Each metallic clang of the cookie cutters hitting the ceramic tiles echoes through my head and any relaxation I had previously felt has gone. I continue with the exercise anyway and hope for the best. By the time my husband has removed himself from the shower the war is over, I am hoarse from screaming over the fighting of my kids, the dog is hoarse from barking over my yelling, the relaxation exercise is over and I am more stressed than ever. Maybe I can creep out of bed sometime during the night and try again.