Accomplish Nothing: Your Hammock Relaxation Guide

Quiet your mind, relax your skin, deepen your breath, peaceful as Gandhi Do you feel like you're always working? Checking your e-mail fifty times a day, while sorting your "friends" on a networking website instead of in real life? No free time left to spend on yourself? Or have you just become such a grown-up that you forgot how to play? Remember when the most effort you spent was to lift a sprig of long-grass to your teeth, while you named ladybugs and watched ants do all the work? Remember when you did nothing all day, and you were soooo happy doing it? Face the reality check: doing "nothing," or in other words, relaxing, is still beneficial for you. Accomplish nothing. The hardest thing for adults to accomplish is nothing. We get very goal-oriented and forget that rest and relaxation are essential goals for well-being. While we long for long-lost peace and relaxation, we don't make room for it in our daily schedules.

Laying in a soft hammock, rocking slowly in the fresh breeze as cold drips of water slide down your lemonade glass, is the height of luxury. Don't feel guilty for relaxing. You are the boss of your time, and if you want to relax, you can. It's no harder than that. Thirty percent of the time people spend behind a computer is wasted goofing off. Don't completely stop goofing around; just take it outside instead. You'll save electricity, and the air is better.

Face it. Staring at the sky, analyzing clouds, and daydreaming are proven stress relievers. Reducing stress increases both life span and life quality. They told you that at the gym and charged you sixty bucks, but you can reduce stress for free too, right in your own back yard. Lower blood pressure, healthier skin, and increased memory and creativity are all proven benefits of doing nothing. So if you need justification, remind yourself that you're healing your mind and body with the un-workout. But better yet, go ahead and call it goofing off. You'll smile more.

Head trip. Is it a coincidence that the most beautiful art comes from countries that embrace the siesta? That the best hammocks come from South America, where the quality of life is considered the best in the world? The mind is never idle. You can entertain it by staring at the TV, or you can accomplish nothing and everything by turning the TV off and letting your mind entertain you. You'll be amazed at what colorful genius pops into your empty head.

Pillow talk. Do you feel you don't get enough time with your spouse or kids? Two-person hammocks and family hammocks are big, wide and plenty strong enough for all y'all. You'll be surprised how easy it is to talk loved ones into going for a little sway. (Harder is keeping them out of it when you want it to yourself). More amazing are the honest conversations that come from lying around together in the peaceful swing of your hammock. You'll have time to listen and learn something, or to say nothing more than "I want to be with you."

The Accomplish Nothing toolkit. Get into a hammock and melt. It's effortless (beyond the occasional nudge to get it swinging). Like a baby in a cradle, your mind quiets, your face relaxes and smoothes, your breath deepens and slows, rhythmic as ocean waves. We don't know why hammocks work so well, and we don't care why, especially when we're in one. They just do. And unlike other relaxation techniques that take some time to learn, hammocks are this easy: 1) open it. 2) get in.

If you don't have a hammock yet, browse our website. It's easy to find the perfect one for your style, and we'll deliver it to your door. If you already have a nice hammock, we bet you didn't even make it to this sentence before you shut off your computer and headed for the back yard, book in hand.