Relax

I’ve updated the Relax Booklet with new illustrations!

Are you feeling stressed and overwhelmed? Do you need some tips on how to relax and unwind? Look no further than this handy booklet, newly illustrated and reformatted for online for your convenience.

In this booklet, you'll find a variety of techniques and strategies for reducing stress and finding peace in your everyday life. You never know, it might just be the thing you need to find some calm in the midst of a busy day. Click the link below to access RELAX:

Enjoy this history of the Lake Harriet Bandshell that goes along with the new plan to renovate its much worn roof.

New Publisher in Town

If you're like me, you may still be mourning the loss of Minneapolis' City Pages. Luckily, a new startup, with a similar style and approach to reporting has arrived. Get to know this Racket.

More than a couple movies that have been teased recently make me want to go sprinting into the movie theater. Please enjoy what looks like the credit sequence for Mr. Anderson's latest. It's animated and in French.

Pinball, 1973

Reading through the Haruki Murakami's "Series of the Rat". So far, my favorite installment is Pinball, 1973. Surreal and real, it's relaxing to slow down to Murakami's pace.

38th & Chicago

Finally got around to reading this thoughtful reporting, by Slate, about CUP Foods. Minneapolis being the epicenter for a national conversation about racist police policies has been a lot to process. Here's hoping for improvement, change and a more humane government and culture in 2021.

Working with a Print Designer

Producing a printed promotional piece that shines and communicates the quality of your business requires the help of a print designer. If you’re new to print, I can help.

Print Design Formats

There are endless types of projects that are printed, each with their own unique advantages and challenges. Listed below are a few of the type of projects that benefit the most from an experienced print designer:

Business Cards with Special Effects • Branded Packaging • Brochures • Billboards • Book Covers • Magazines • Outdoor and Indoor Signage • Posters • Tradeshow Banners 

Print Design is Different from Digital Design

When selecting a designer for your print project, it’s good to ask how much of their portfolio is print focused, and how long they’ve been designing for print. Once your project is printed, the opportunity to correct mistakes has passed—similar mistakes in an online environment have fewer financial consequences.

Also, there is a limit to how much text and graphics can fit on a single side of a business card. An established print designer is aware of these boundaries and is focused on readability and clarity. 

Color is another element that looks different on a computer screen when compared to a physical printed object. A print designer can help navigate those differences so that there are no surprises.  

Printers Speak a Unique Language

Ideally, there is a discussion about how best to produce the print item before selecting a print partner. Then written specifications are developed in a common language familiar to the print industry. Developing this language, reviewing/converting images and preparing color for print is my specialty. 

Read The Final Proof or You’ll Pay The Consequences

Tips for final proofing:

-Review a physical proof (not just a PDF) before printing any project. 

-Someone who has never seen the project and can look at it with fresh eyes can see errors others’ might have overlooked

-Bring these proofs with you to the press check, if your print designer hasn't already

-Color correction should be done with the printer, based on the proofs, because their color-profile and workspace may be different from what you’ve been looking at.

Need help with your next print project? Send me an email.

Trying To Relax

For me, sitting still can be a struggle.

"Relax", is a small booklet that I picked up in a Wisconsin second hand store a number of years ago. I’ve often gone and re-read it whenever I felt on edge—carrying too much stress and worry.

I’d always wanted to reprint the booklet, so that it could be read by more people. The original goal was to slowly transcribe each chapter from the booklet with new illustrations. One chapter a month. The first chapter was posted on willdinski.com in January 2019. I live for big projects that I can slowly chip away at. 

However, with more time that I would normally like to sit in front of my computer, and to put my mind on calmer things—I turned to completing the project a few months early.

With pervasive uncertainty, we are all carrying a lot of tension in our bodies. I hope that being aware of how you feel and the ways you can reduce that tension will keep us healthy.

Go here to read “Relax” written by Leonard M. Leonard, from 1952.

Relax: Chapter 7—USE “SUGGESTIONS” TO CALM DOWN

Is there a “suggestion box” in your shop or office? If it’s peace and quiet you want, a form of “suggestion box” is what you may need in your home too.

The “suggestions” are to be given to you by the walls, doors, pictures you see; even by the sounds you hear. And the only suggestions they will make are Peace, Quiet, Repose. You can get these suggestions so often that they will work on you; they will help calm your mind when you feel upset; they will give a feeling of quiet assurance to your whole being.

There is no hocus-pocus about it. You know that looking at something restful make you feel restful. And you know, too, that looking at something exciting tends to excite you. So when you want to relax, it isn’t much of a help to be confronted by the portrait of a nude burlesque queen, an exciting horse race scene, or a wall full of battle pictures. 

Why not deposit that art work at the club house, or remove it to the rumpus room in the basement? And in your living quarters — especially the bedroom — where you want to escape from the turmoil and bring rest to your mind and body put restful sights on the walls. 

Nobody can tell you what a restful scene is; the description must be your own. But finding pictures for your wall which give you a sense of quiet can be more important to you and to your family than finding genuine masterpieces. 

The Psalmist had the perfect idea when he sand of “green pastures” and “still waters.” There is something especially soothing about pastoral scenes and views of tranquil water. Many nervous people find it soothing to look at an aquarium with tropical fish swimming about in it. The newest of these is a fish bowl which hangs on the wall like a picture.

There you have two ideas, but it’s a personal matter. Maybe watching fish will make you hungry, and a water scene may stir up memories of the time you nearly drowned! You must choose your own decorations, but try to choose the most restful you can find.

We are on safer ground with color. Green and blue-green are generally the most soothing colors. They are a good choice for the tense person unless they involve a dispute with other members of the family. Blue also is s sedative color, but too much can go too far. We speak of being “blue” for good reason; the color tends to be depressing.

Red is all right, but for the game room where you want to get up a lot of steam. It’s for stimulation, not sedation. As for yellow and orange, they can cheer you up. But they aren’t very likely to calm you down.

Don’t over look the effect of words. If you doubt the effect that word can have upon you, just look back to the letter which gave you bad news. And to another which raised your spirits sky-high! Just words, but they gave you thoughts.

With wall mottoes and slogans, suggest psychologist Ernest Dichter, you can keep imparting relaxing thoughts to your mind. So whenever you come across a quotation or message which give you reassurance and seems to make you feel more at ease all around, jot it down. The muster all the artist you can name make a sign of it. Place it where you will see it often, for example, on the saving mirror of your bathroom, or even the footboard of your bed.

Gladstone of England, who had a stormy life, brought repose into his bedroom. To help himself relax and get to sleep, he inscribed this Biblical message on his footboard: Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is tased on Thee.

Look to the Bible for the most reassuring messages you are likely to find anywhere. Don’t try to convince yourself, and don’t trouble to question. William James credits a few simple Bible quotations with saving his sanity during a period of great fear and tension. They were words that worked, never mind how.

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale tells of a harassed and jittery business man who was virtually on the verge of hysteria when he chanced to open a Bible in his hotel room. He came upon the Twenty-Third Psalm and when he finally closed the book, his tension had vanished and he was completely at ease. 

These are just a few of the relaxing and comforting messages in the Bible:

“… God hat not given us the sprit of fear; but of power, and of love, and a sound mind …” (II Timothy 1:7)

“Let not your heart be troubled.” (John 14:1)

“Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; fret no they self …” (Psalm 37:8)

“I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep; for thou, Lord, only makes me dwell in safety …” (Psalms)

“In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength …” (Isaiah 30:15)

But of course there are lots of enduring words outside the Bible, too. It would be surprising if you couldn’t find dozens of saying with a certain magic in them for you. Dr. Dichter says he can calm himself down with two simple words: “So what?” They have a way of taking the bigness out of problems and cutting worries down to size.

In the same vein, Abraham Lincoln, who was a melancholy man, comforted himself with the saying, “This, too, shall pass away.” He needed to be reminded that even sadness isn’t permanent. 

Relax: Chapter 6—LITTLE LESSONS IN LAZINESS

---

Time out, please. Your worries have vanished, little annoyances don’t get your goat any more, you feel quite, you look better, you’re nicer to live with, you’re making more progress. Not yet? It will come.

Anyway, you may still be making extra work for yourself. You may still be less lazy than you should be.

Now don’t let anyone kid you about laziness. It pays! But you’ve got to be lazy in the right way. That is, never too lazy to do what you should, but always too lazy to do what you shouldn’t.

The best proof is the greatest body of laws ever written. Only two of the Ten Commandments tell you to do something. Eight others tell you what not to do. And you had better now, either, if you want to avoid tension.

As it happens, the bad thing — morally, mentally, physically — is always the unnecessary, the undesirable thing. It has no place in the scheme of intelligent laziness. Yet let’s try a sampling of how much tense effort you may waste every day. If you know how to be lazy, you can answer “no” to each of these questions:

• Do you press down so hard that you frequently break off the points of pencils as you write? If so, you are entirely too tense and are working too hard. Learn to write with the minimum of pressure.

• Do you find yourself standing or pacing about when you could just as well be sitting? It’s easier to sit than to stand. Be lazy and sit down when you can.

• Do you talk or argue more than you listen? See how many things you can safely leave unsaid. Besides saving your voice and energy, it can keep you friends.

• Do you put off doing disagreeable tasks? Be too lazy to carry them in your mind any longer than you must. Do them first and get them over with. You’ll be surprised to find how much tension you’ll avoid.

• Do you try to hide your mistakes? It takes more time and effort than frankly admitting them as soon as you can. Don’t add a heavy conscience and jumpy nerves to your burdens. Own up and see how relaxed it makes you feel.

• Do you always write out your name and address on packages, letters and postcards? Discover the rubber stamp or treat yourself to printed letterheads or labels. Save work.

• Do you try to dodge creditors? It’s more fun to play tag with the children, probably a good deal less strenuous and certainly very much easier on your nerves. Tell your creditors the truth and see what happens.

• Do you strain your mind to remember things, and get all worked up when you can’t? Ge the habit of jotting down memos, and spare your mind. As one profound philosopher has noted, “A short pencil is better than a long memory.”

• Do you keep imaginary pets called “grudges”? Try a different kind of pet for a change. Even a wildcat can do more good. Ask your enemy what all the fuss is about and clear the atmosphere. You’ll feel easier.

On the positive side, here are some questions to which your answer should be “yes”:

• Have you discovered the effort-saving utility of marketing carts for you shopping, or wheel trays, toy wagons and baskets for carrying things around the house?

• Are you a work-planner? Before starting to work on a job, are you careful to see that you have on hand all the tools and materials you will need, to avoid losing time and temper in looking for them later?

• Are you a step-saver? Do you organize your activities to avoid needless trips, especially up and down stairs? Do you keep ladders, tools, ash-trays, lamp bulbs, searchlights, etc., always ready where you are most likely to need them?

• Are you a stock-taker? Do you avoid household scenes and flurries of excitement by keeping a simple inventory of necessary items such as toothpaste, shaving cream, razor blades, and so forth so that you never run out of them?

Life can be easier and lazier in lots of little ways that total big relaxation. Try them and see.

Miss Minneapolis Flour

Miss Minneapolis was a flour mill in the Twin Cities that was in business from around 1920 until the mid 70’s.

They had the best logo, and ran the Miss Minneapolis beauty contest. Second place won a 50 pound bag of flour. Classy.

The below recipe is nearly 100 years old, and came from a Miss Minneapolis booklet of recipes.

I used coconut milk, but you can use the milk of a cow if you prefer. Moo.

2 cups scalded milk
1 cup boiling water
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons lard
1 cake of yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
6 cups MISS MINNEAPOLIS FLOUR

Put liquid, salt, sugar and lard into a bowl, stir until salt and sugar and lard are dissolved. Mix these with lukewarm water. When the first mixture is of the same temperature, add yeast to it. Add half the flour and beat well, then all the remainder of the flour, making batter a stiff dough. Knead until smooth and elastic, place into greased bowl, set in a warm place and let rise for about two hours. Mold into loaves, place in a warm place, and let rise for one hour. Pre-heat oven ten minutes and bake 50 minutes.

Relax: Chapter 5

Relax
Written by Leonard M. Leonard
Designed + Illustrated by Will Dinski
Original Copyright 1952

---

Chapter 5
Mental Fire-Traps That “Burn You Up”

One good turn deserves another. Try non-resistance on the other mental states that make you tense.

It’s the same deal. If you hate something you’re resisting its presence. If you suspect someone, you’re resisting what he may do. If you envy someone, your resisting her success. If you’re jealous of someone, you’re resisting that person’s attractiveness to others.

When something riles us, we say that it “burns us up” – which comes pretty close to the actual truth. As we have already noted, the scenes and actions which negative thoughts bring to your mind are telegraphed through your body. You fight battles, suffer heartaches, engage dangers in make-believe enactments that “burn you up” or wear you down.

Don’t wait for the doctor to tell you that your blood pressure has gone up, that your heart’s overworked, that an ulcer is on the way, or that you need a good rest. Rest? You can take i on your feet, if you’ll take it in your head. Give up your mental tug-of-war!

The idea, of course, if not to take the fight out of you, but to leave the fight in you. Every so often, something happens which calls for all the resistance we can muster. Why waste it, for example, against the sound of someone chewing popcorn in the movies?

These days, we Americans are doing a lot of proper bragging about Freedom and Independence. But here’s a question: how free and independent are you when you give to every petty annoyance, every disappointment, every person who crosses you the power to disturb you, to control your moods, to upset your digestion, to make your heart beat faster or your blood pressure shoot up?

Again we say it: be willing to let things happen. Stop resisting so much, and relax.

The Content Technologist Is Here

Deborah Carver is a Content Technologist, digital strategist, snappy dresser and all around wonderful partner. As a Content Technologist, she helps companies find the right content and marketing technology for their business.

I draw things! You can see some of these drawings in the latest issue of the Content Technologist newsletter.

Click Here to signup.

CHAPTER 4: How To Take A Mental Anesthetic

Written by Leonard M. Leonard
Designed + Illustrated by Will Dinski
Original Copyright 1952

---

You know that when you want to cut cord, you you make it taut and more resistant to the knife? The limp string is always harder to snip in tow. And there is a lesson for you. If you don’t bend, you may break.

Ben Franklin quotes a piece of advice he received in his youth: “You are young and have the world before you; stoop as you go through it and you will miss many hard thumps.” The point was to be humble, but it might just as well have been to relax, to yield.

Here is an interesting fact and a valuable tip to go with it: if you are stiff, tense and nervous, you are likely to be much more sensitive to pain than a relaxed, calm person. Therefore, teach yourself to “let go” when facing a painful ordeal.

Having your teeth filled is anything but a painful ordeal these days, yet many “he-men” dread the thought of going to the dentist. You are afraid of being hurt, and are already anticipating the suffering from the drill as you sit in the waiting room. By now, you know why – you are resisting the operation. Well, next time, try giving yourself this mental anesthetic:

When your turn comes in the chair, note the tenseness throughout your body. Probably all your nerves will be taut and alert, as though prepared for battle instead of a filling. Let them go limp. Instead of fairly rising out of the chair, let yourself sink into it as the work proceeds.

The minute you are willing to be hurt, something happens. Your never and muscles relax. They are, in a sense, too limp to flash pain messages to your head. You may not enjoy sitting in the dental chair, but you’ll find that it isn’t nearly so bad as you had expected.