Relax v. To make muscles less tense or rigid; to become looser or less rigid; to take rest or recreation as from work or effort.

This is all very well and good. The question is: how?

Throughout mankind's existence, the search for relaxation has been ongoing. There are some factions who believe the act of relaxation is practically sinful. The conservative fundamentalist's battle cry: 'Idle hands are the Devil's workshop' and all that rot.

Still other humans on the opposing side of the spectrum have devoted their entire lives to various forms of relaxation. Some religious doctrines, such as Buddhism, seem to focus more on the relaxing concept of meditation. Then there are individuals who may not hold to any particular doctrine, but do explore the avenues of 'procrastination' whenever they can get away with it.

The majority of human beings however, seem to balance somewhere between these two extremes. They toil at mundane jobs for two score plus weeks in a year, try to get tiresome tasks like laundry and checkbook balancing accomplished in the few hours between the end of their shift and fitful slumber, and set aside their explorations of true relaxation for two or three weeks in a year.

These explorations are often referred to as vacations, and usually involve exercising great effort in packing and travelling to distant scenic locales in order to spend the money they saved up during the year on hotel rooms and activities that they no doubt could have found suitable, less expensive alternatives for, near their own homes. Suffice it to say, few ever actually experience true relaxation during their vacations, most notably because they are still stressing over the problems their mundane existences will serve them in the years to come.

Be it in the wee hours of sleepless nights, during their lunch breaks, after hours or during weekends with their friends, on cumbersome attempts at vacations, or while on other occasional breaks from their mundane jobs, the majority of people have a grand variety of relaxing activities to allow them the illusion of getting away from it all for a brief time. Such as:

• Camping.

• Curling up with a good book.

• Pottery.

• Meditation, yoga, or contemplating one's navel.

• Aerobic exercise, calisthenics, or TaeBo.

• Spending hours at a nearby coffee shop trying out new flavours.

• Memorizing verses from religious texts.

• Wandering around in a library.

• People watching (sitting at a mall or transportation terminal and observing the comings and goings of strangers).

• Standing around a water cooler sharing stories with fellow employees, or standing outside smoking cigarettes complaining about how smokers are now treated like second-class citizens.

• Playing pool, billiards, throwing darts, video games, playing cards, board games like Monopoly, etc.

• Getting behind the wheel of one's car with a full tank of gas and driving in no particular direction for the sheer fun of it.

• Shopping.

• Dating. This usually devolves into a conversation of 'What do you want to do?' 'I don't know, what do you want to do?' 'Well I asked you first.' 'I'm not particular, whatever you want to do is fine.'

• Surfing the Web.

• Singing off-key and at the top of one's lungs in the shower or in one's car when one believes no one is looking or listening.

• Sitting in a darkened theatre watching a recently released film.

• Listening to the radio, or listening to one's CD/cassette/vinyl collection. Optionally singing off-key and at the top of one's lungs.

• Lazing around in a hammock and swatting the occasional mosquito when one should be mowing the lawn.

• Daydreaming.

• Swimming. Also other water sports including jetskis and boats.

• Taking a very long bath.

• Writing poetry or short stories or one's memoirs.