Hello and welcome to Real Easy English.
In this podcast, we have real conversations in easy English to help you learn.
I'm Beth.
And I'm Neil.
Don't forget.
You can watch a video version of this podcast and read the subtitles to help you understand on our website at bbclearningenglishcom.
Hi Neil.
How are you?
I'm very well, Beth.
How are you?
I'm good.
I'm feeling relaxed.
Are you?
I am feeling relaxed.
Well, that's good because today we are talking about relaxing.
If you relax, then you do less activity and you are calm and happy.
Sounds great.
Shall we start?
I think we should.
So Neil, what sort of things do you find relaxing?
Well, I find doing something really different to the thing I was doing before, like work, relaxing.
So if I have been working, sometimes I like to cook, to relax or maybe play my guitar or even go for a run, do some exercise.
I find that relaxing.
Yeah.
I also think that cooking can be relaxing but, to be honest, I only really relax in the kitchen if I also have some music on or a podcast and if I'm in the kitchen on my own and then I can just do whatever I want to.
So Beth, it sounds like listening to music in the kitchen helps you switch off.
Now, switch off means stop thinking about the thing you were doing before.
That maybe causes you stress.
Yeah, if you switch off, you definitely relax.
And I do find music, listening to music, relaxing.
It definitely helps me switch off because...
Whatever I'm doing, whether it's cooking or even something boring like doing the washing up or folding laundry
If I have music on, then I just focus on the music, maybe sing along or just listening.
And that really takes my mind off everything else.
What do you do to rest?
Rest means kind of do nothing in order to recover from being busy.
To rest.
I really enjoy having a bath and reading a book in the bath.
That really helps me to relax and rest.
What about you?
I'm not very good at resting because I think I get bored and sad.
So for me to relax, it's better to do something active, and then I feel more relaxed and like I've had a rest.
Yeah, sometimes I feel guilty when I rest.
Because I think, oh, I shouldn't be doing this.
I need to do this, this and this.
And I find it a bit hard.
But I think relaxing and taking a break is very important, because we need it to make ourselves feel better generally, don't we?
Absolutely.
OK, let's recap the language we use during the conversation, starting with relax.
If you relax, you do less activity and you are calm and happy.
And we can also describe an activity as relaxing.
And that means it makes you feel calm and happy.
We also heard switch off, which means to stop thinking about stressful things.
We also heard rest, which means stop doing things so that you can relax.
For example, when I want to rest, I have a bath and read a book.
And we heard take your mind off, something which means stop thinking about one thing and start thinking about another.
For example, I like to watch football.
It takes my mind off the stressful day at work.
That's it for this episode of Real Easy English.
Why not test what you've learnt with the worksheet over on our website, bbclearningenglishcom.
We'll be back next week with another real conversation in Easy English.
Goodbye for now.
Goodbye.
