How do you relax

This has been a lovely thread to read. I used to have several hobbies but i had a big life event resulting in PTSD, loss of my job and then career .i ruminate constantly..
A friend sent me a beginners diamond drill art kit..i was hooked within 15minutes! I did super easy ones to start and now do about an hour a day and listen to podcasts and am completely absorbed like ive not been with anything else. I plan to frame and donate to charities for raffle gifts

That sounds really good @Eliz31abeth. 

Hi @leeCal - just the person. I've been looking for your link to meditation, which I hope you still have. I think it would be really useful for the recent 'Coping with stress thread.' Please post it on there or send it to Tori_Scope , thank you.

I’m hoping this was the link , it’s pertinent anyway @chiarieds
https://www.lionsroar.com/mindful-living-thich-nhat-hanh-on-the-practice-of-mindfulness-march-2010/

this is another method 
https://www.lionsroar.com/category/how-to/

Personally i find counting breaths out from one to ten then one again and so on most helpful, once you’ve reached a calm abiding state you can slip into meditating on a subject and back again to counting breaths quite easily. The idea is to maintain a calmness, like the tuning of a guitar string, not too tight, not too loose. I started with five minutes and increased gradually to half an hour. Often we try to carry out an exercise for too long and because it interferes with our everyday lives too much we discontinue, which is why I limit my sessions to a half hour which I can afford and which I find repeatable.

I enjoy learning five string banjo , that's six months I have been learning . I spend a couple of hours ( roughly ) a day ( 20 minute sessions ) .I,m learning bluegrass and flailing style.  It has stopped me going crazy ????)

Hi @leeCal.... I agree that meditation is a great way to relax . I used to attend tinnitus clinics regularly and I tried many different things to help my tinnitus ...from Reiki to hypnosis and everything in between , even Hoppi candles ( you stick the candle in your ear and put a light to it ) nothing ever worked to relieve my 24/7 jet engine tinnitus in my right ear ( the tinnitus also stole my hearing in my right ear)  ?? I have 20% hearing in my left ear , so I cannot complain .?
Meditation helped me, to a certain degree ??

You’re welcome @Eliz31abeth, I hope you find it helpful ?

@Seanchai I suddenly had a tenfold increase in my tinnitus some five years ago, around 80db! In both ears. I used to play bass guitar in a few local bands and of course I was situated next to the drummer mostly and they were always fond of crashing cymbals. I also worked with power tools without earmuffs and in one particularly noisy injection moulding factory when I was young, again without ear defenders.

At first I thought I was going to die of something, perhaps a tumour or something but I had an MRI scan and they found nothing sinister and so I was told it was incurable .ive tried using a masking sound etc but nothing really helps. There were times when I thought the noise would drive me mad.  However, though I never thought I would ive actually got used to the jet engines and the white noise actually helps me to block out interfering sounds when I’m meditating. In this way I’ve incorporated the sound into my life and accepted it as, at least sometimes, helpful! Since I can’t cure it I must endure it and I’ve managed to see it as a reasonably positive thing. I’m not saying I’d rather keep the sound if there was a cure but since there isn’t a remedy for this malady then why not make the best of it. 

So sorry @leeCal to know you have it in both ears ....I,m not sure I could manage it in both ears . A few years ago I went completely deaf ( both ears....apart from my tinnitus) I could not hear a single thing anybody was saying . I went through the same process as I did a few years before . Doctor , wait on specialist appointment, then attending ithe appointment and then waiting on a date for an MIR scan and then waiting on the results .  .... while waiting g for the results of my scan a little bit of hearing came back to my left ear ....and with a bluetooth hearing aid I can hear people taking in the same room ...as long as there is nobody else talking or radio or TV going in the background . I had/ have a brilliant care worker / social worker who helped me immensely with my hearing problems . He visited me and asked what my hobbies were. I told him I used to enjoy shortwave radio and airplane scanners but now I cannot hear them . I cannot thank Richard enough for all he done for me/us . He got a device that goes under the mattress just incase i cannot hear the smoke alarm ( this device shakes me out of bed if the smoke alarm goes off.) ?? He then got me a loop for the living room so I can hear the TV and also a microphone on it ei I can pick up someone talking to me ..he also got a loop device that goes around my neck , plugs into my scanners and send the sound directly to my hearing aid on the loop setting ...I cannot thank the fella enough for all he done for me.