Actually relax without spending a ton of money

Learn how to recharge and let go without spending a ton of money. That’s right: we’re talking about 9 ways to relax for free (or almost free)

If you had asked us what we would love to do to treat myself years ago, our answer would be something like:

Visit a spa
Get a massage
Go to an island
Relax by the beach

You know, the usual self-care tips people say will make you feel more relaxed and AH-MAZING.

Now we throw up in our mouth when we hear something like this. The other day we actually went to a massage and all we could think of was: “When is it going to be over?” And, can we take a moment and ask who am we to actually get a massage now? Jeff Bezos’ daughter?

We hate when we think we've wasted something as valuable as time. And we don’t like spending money if there’s no return on that investment. We didn’t feel rejuvenated at all. Is that why we're getting a massage? To lay there and feel useless for 30 minutes and like we've wasted precious resources? It wasn’t our first time getting a massage and we always feel the same way. That’s nice, when can we go?

To actually relax, we want to do things. To experience things. Things that make memories. When more things happen – we relax, it helps us reduce stress naturally. And that’s the case for everyone, because we're like everyone else. Also because some studies say so. So, they say a reliable things are free and here are 9 simple ways to actually recharge and relax for free.

9 Simple Ways To Actually Relax For Free

1. Wake up early and catch the sunrise

It’s always a good reminder that we’re just some teeny tiny microbes in a huge universe. We don’t need to be smart, we don’t need to be beautiful, we don’t need to be solid, we don’t need to be anything. We’re just a part of all this. Not good or bad. We simply are. Everything we are or you are stressed about – does not matter in this huge universe. Therefore: catch a sunrise every now and then.

2. Stretch or Yoga or Play A Game or Anything

You know what we were thinking while that guy was massaging our back? (except “when is it going to be over?!!!”). We thought, THE WHOLE TIME: we could’ve done some yoga. Yoga would help. We went to that massage because we had neck and shoulder pain. When we left we still had neck and shoulder pain. But you know what happens when we try a 20-minute yoga video for neck and shoulders? Less pain and relaxed! It’s like magic.

Same for ANY type of exercise – not just the boring yoga and stretch type (love you, yoga!). We feel more relaxed after a run, after a dance workout, after a barre workout, even after losing a basketball game on Tuesday night. Exercise is FREE and it is, in our opinion, one of a reliable things you could do for your mental health.

3. Take a day trip. Anywhere.

When you get into a routine and every day seems like the one before, the last month is a huge blur – take a day trip. Anywhere. You could go to a park and spend the day outside, having a picnic, you could visit museums in your city you’ve never seen, you don’t need to go far. We've experienced this time and time again and love it. You go somewhere new for a day and feel like you’ve been away from it all for weeks.

4. Go out with friends OR almost friends

Going out with friends is always fun. You laugh, you’re happy, you can be you. But. Going out with the same friends, doing the same things over and over again will not be too relaxing. You cannot make many new memories like that. Switch things up, go out somewhere else, do something different or go out with different people every now and then. It will either make you appreciate your own friends or you’ll make even more friends. You never know what’s going to happen when you change a few things about your routine.

5. Get into the water

Since we started our 30 Day Morning Workout Challenge We've been going to the beach in the morning to: 1st watch the sunrise, 2nd do a fast workout. So there, the other day we saw a guy our dad’s age who arrived, took off most of his clothes and went for a long refreshing swim in the calm water wearing his speedo.

It was a moment of pure peaceful jealousy on our side. Like we want to do that. We want to wake up and start our day with a swim and just be free. We LOVE WATER. But there we were. Doing our full-body workout trying to pretend it’s as good as swimming in calm, clear waters. We wish we were more spontaneous and would just go for a swim too. We're working on it.

So be spontaneous, if you live somewhere near water where you can go swimming, why not start your day with this?

6. Play an instrument

Okay, so this might be different for you. But for us – we've always wanted to learn an instrument. 4 years ago we rented a small apartment that had a piano in it. We cannot play the piano, but did we not play it? Of course we did. It was so relaxing. And we were actually better than we thought. In our opinion. Music is therapeutic and playing an instrument can help a lot with stress relief.

7. Gardening

Nothing more rewarding or relaxing than growing your own food. You get to experience the miracle of life. You put a seed into the ground, you water it, take care of it and then you harvest the result. Plus you get a great workout. This is one of our goals for the next years – learn how to garden and grow our own food.

8. DIY

Jars, cans, bottles, cereal boxes, clothes. You can transform ANYTHING into something useful. And don’t we all love transformations? a) You save money. b) You kinda save the environment a little bit. DIY work forces you to be present, focused and to follow through on what you’ve started. So it’s relaxing and recharging.

9. Home Organization

We are not a organized person. In fact, we're ALL OVER THE PLACE. ALL THE TIME. But when we do, we enjoy organizing our home. We put on some music, we dance, we clean we organize and all of a sudden – everything is in its proper place. It’s just so peaceful. We think clear and we can start brand new.

Well, if you’ve been stressed lately, we hope you got some new ideas on how to ACTUALLY reduce stress naturally and relax (without feeling useless) for absolutely FREE.

One self-care thing we didn’t mention is that on and off we write down everything that goes through our mind. This has been a positive change for us, We've talked about it before and we could only recommend it. If you’ve got many things on your mind – take them first to paper, then if needed into action!