Hello, I hope you had a lovely week so far. Unfortunately I missed a post on Sunday, because last week was a little hectic, but today I have another post for you. I had a really nice and relaxing weekend and I thought I share some tips with you on how I relax these days. Especially since I study and live by my own I really value those days were I have nothing to do and can just enjoy the day. Waking up in the morning, with the sun rising over the mountains in front of my window is just the best part of the day. When I am at my parents house, I also love to sit on the terrace and enjoy the first cup of coffee. We recently redecorated our terrace (the outcome you can see here)  and now it is truly a place to enjoy and you actually do not have to leave for vacation. For me, the perfect Sunday has to include either avocado on toast or pancakes. At the moment I really try to reduce my carb and sugar intake due to my acid reflux, since it actually got worse and really have to change my way of eating. But I will write you an extra blogpost on that if I have a little bit more experience on it. However, this is the reason why I changed my breakfast in the last few days and opted for chia pudding or scrambled eggs, but every now and then the coconut banana pancakes are the breakfast of choice. And of course a good cup of coffee!

After breakfast, I like to do an excursion or at least something. If the weather is nice I love to go to a near lake or mountain. In the summer months it is also really nice to go and search for mushrooms in the forest, especially in the evenings since you have the possibility to see some deer. If you are interested in excursion options around Villach or Carinthia, let me know, I am happy to share some tips with you. A Sunday also is not perfect without some reading. At the moment I really enjoy Swedish crime literature and books about the economy. I am going to share my Summer reading list with you next week. Lately, I also like to puzzle again. I have to take some puzzles with me to Salzburg, because it really helps to relax and calm down, but due to my ambition it is also really time-consuming (when I start something, i finish it. Same with good books, then the “see you in three days” rules applies).

Something which also helps me to relax and calm down is sleep. You might be confused now, because this is definitely nothing new, but especially if I have a lot to do or exam phase at university for me, sometimes it really helps to just go to bed and sleep. Then when i wake up the next day I am really relaxed and my mind is calm and therefore I can start again to tackle my tasks. What also helps is to go for a 20 min. walk or just take the bicycle to the next coffee shop, get a coffee and then try again.

If you have any recommendations on how to relax, then please let me know in the comments, so that I can try some of your ways to relax.