Can't, can you? Despite the enormous energy dedicated to relaxing, no one does much relaxing. The wild creatures don't even try. "Relax! Are you nuts. You tryin' to get me killed"? Relaxed animals are dead animals".
That's a little exaggerated, but not much.
Civilized humans don't have to worry about being killed nearly so often as wild animals; wild animals have to worry about being killed all the time.
That relative safety doesn't stop tizzies of anxiety rippling though most every day: Oh no, not now! I'm late! Damn, It's always something! Argh! What if . . . ?
This business of relaxing requires expert help. That's why it's big-business. Professional Soothers, from Swamis to Big-Med, Masseuses, and the Travel Industry, are ready and on call. "This pill makes you larger, this pill makes you small". "Breathe deeply, free your mind". "Massages works best when regularly scheduled. We should set you up for regular visits". . .
If medication, meditation, and massage doesn't work, maybe a vacation will do the trick. There's no dearth of travel-agents eager to whisk you away to a warm resort with palm trees and balmy breezes. Doesn't that sound relaxing? "Well yes, there's the price. No need to worry yourself about that. We have plans for every budget?
I wonder if the Soothers are soothed by all the money they're bringing in?
Doesn't paying to get relaxed make it hard to relax?
Maybe relaxing isn't all it's cracked-up to be. Most folks in the third-world don't give relaxing much thought at all, getting-by is hard enough. Maybe efforts to relax aren't worth the effort. It's an impossible ambition.
Impossible ambitions aren't worth fretting about. Tension is a condition of life on Earth. It ever was and it will always be. Why bother yourself with what can't be controlled?
Consider the lilies of the field that neither reap nor sow; aren’t they happy enough just to be? "Yeah, well, lilies don't have responsibilities like I do".
Who gave you those responsibilities? Was it yourself? Did you assign yourself more than you can handle? Knock it off! Nobody cares about what you failed to do. Most of them don't even notice.
Follow the sage advice of B. Bunny - "Unlax, Doc".
If you find it hard to re-lax, perhaps you should instead, un-lax. Anxiety is self-imposed. It can only be perpetuated by your own insistence.
Take care of what needs doing now, file for future reference what can't be done now. Trash those concerns that aren't worth being concerned about at all.
Nobody can really re-lax. Everybody can learn to un-lax.
Isn't that a relaxing thought?