relaxation

How to Hang a Hammock Anywhere

When we passed a woman lazily lounging in a hammock strung between two trees in our local park, we wondered why we don’t see more people taking advantage of the many hammock opportunities that are available. IF you know how…

Ambient Nature Sounds by Irv Teibel: “Like Experiencing Something Great and Sublime”

On a packed subway train I listened to birdsong and felt myself calming down. This was not just any endless-loop “nature sound” tape. This was Irv Teibel’s artful recording from the 70’s, now available as an app that I can’t live without.

The Line of Least Resistance (Trisha Brown)

We when first watched this beautiful two minute video, we knew nothing about it, who made it or who its subject was. We thought only: THAT is how we want to be…

Essential Secrets About Living (Bill Murray)

In this rough video, Bill Murray is asked how his unique way of living came about. Here are “some of the secrets someone told [him] early on about living”. They are incredibly helpful.

Sound Bath: Short-Cut for Meditation-Like Effects

We were thrilled to learn of an alternative to sitting meditation that doesn’t require that you actually DO the impossible-for-many-people practice of following your breath. It’s totally pleasurable, has many of the effects of meditation, and you can do it at home.

Warning! 10% Battery Left

Over years of working daily at a computer, we’ve come to see how similar it is to our human brain (or vice versa). Just as computers that have had too many different applications working at one time can get slow and boggy, and benefit from being shut down for a while, so do we humans. We’ve…

Books for A Good Night’s Sleep

Want a good night’s sleep, or help falling asleep? Reading a relaxing book really does help to shift your mind out of the day. Recently, our friend Merete Mueller told us her strategy…

Summer Fun Ideas for the Last Sweet Weeks

While we’re off for this last sweet week of summer, we thought we’d leave you with a round-up of some of our best ideas for your own summer ramblings, even if those ramblings are just in your head.

Time Off…via George Booth and Yoko Ono

Sometimes Improvised Life is like this George Booth cartoon. RELAX A LITTLE, yells Improvised Life, in its well-meaning, demanding way. Then we saw Yoko Ono’s lovely sign

F*ck That: A Guided Meditation (Curiously Works!)

(Video link here.) Resistent to meditation? Jason Headley helps you let go of the realities of the world and relax with F*ck That: A Guided Meditation, a radical new reality-embraced, LOL-based technique… That…is….curiously….effective. via Laughing Squid

Virtual Surfing with Ocean Music

Cy Kuckenbaker compressed one hour’s worth of surfing footage into a two minute film. Ahhhhhh, such a nice break, especially viewed full screen. We were going to find some music to go with it, and then realized the music is built in: the ocean’s surf. via Design Boom

refresh with zef: dazzling, relaxing color doodling site

Zef, a wonderful endlessly-improvisable color doodling program by Patakk, gif-maker extraordinaire, sent us on an unexprected psychedelic journey and we found ourselves curiously refreshed. Just go to the blank page, move your cursor, and see where it takes you….