International Relaxation Day, 156 Westcombe Hill, London (2026)

16/04/2026

Free Webinar: Stress Management in Everyday Life: Practical Strategies for Enhancing Wellbeing.
Date & Time: Apr 27, 2026 11:45 AM BST
Speakers: Professor Stephen Palmer and Dr Siobhain O'Riordan PhD

This webinar may be of interest to anyone wishing to learn how to manage stress, become more relaxed and enhance their wellbeing. In this session, Professor Stephen Palmer and Dr Siobhain O'Riordan will explore the foundations of stress and its impact on health and wellbeing. The lecture will introduce practical techniques such as cognitive reframing, the benefits of connecting with nature, and a range of relaxation skills that can be quickly applied once a person has had sufficient practice.

Overall, attendees will learn simple, effective strategies to enhance resilience, improve wellbeing, and make sustainable positive changes in everyday life.

Stress Awareness Month is held annually during April. It is dedicated to raising awareness about stress, its causes, and the impact it can have on our health and wellbeing. It offers an opportunity for individuals and organisations across the UK to engage in important conversations about stress management, share resources, and encourage practices that promote mental resilience.

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_OwhpXGDZT0WUqSwZJxlBKA #/registration

Webinar: Stress Management in Everyday Life: Practical Strategies for Enhancing Wellbeing. This webinar may be of interest to anyone wishing to learn how to manage stress, become more relaxed and enhance their wellbeing. In this session, Professor Stephen Palmer and Dr Siobhain O'Riordan will explor...

15/08/2025

Our many thanks to the international speakers who gave us some excellent, informative presentations today at the International Relaxation Day Conference:

Yumna Ali (Pakistan), Liz Hall (Spain), Dr Richard MacKinnon (UK), Dr Karen E. Neil (UK), Dr Siobhain O’Riordan (UK), Prof Stephen Palmer (UK), Judit Varkonyi-Sepp (UK) and Dr Qing Wang (China).

https://www.internationalrelaxationday.com/ird-conference-2025/international-relaxation-day-conference-speakers/

Prof Stephen Palmer PhD CBiol CPsychol CSci CPsychol FIHPE (Hon) FISMA (Hon) is a Chartered Scientist, Chartered Biologist, Chartered Coaching Psychologist, Registered Health Psychologist and APECS Accredited Executive Coach and Supervisor. He is a BABCP Accredited Cognitive Behaviour Therapist and...

15/08/2025

Welcome to International Relaxation Day which is held annually on the 15th August. A day to relax or choose to learn new relaxation techniques. Or perhaps take some time out in a busy day to relax.

International Relaxation Day is an opportunity to reflect and share the importance of relaxation and how people, families, organisations and communities can learn about applying relaxation in their daily lives and routines. Social media can be used to share what methods you have found useful to aid relaxation. You can use the hashtags:

If National Relaxation Day is recognised in your country then you can use the hashtag:

https://www.internationalrelaxationday.com/

Welcome to International Relaxation Day which is held annually on the 15th August. A day to relax or choose to learn new relaxation techniques. Or perhaps take some time out in a busy day to relax.

15/08/2025

International Relaxation Day Online Conference
Conference Theme: Harnessing Relaxation to Enhance Wellbeing

Depending upon your time zone, the conference is held on 14th & 15th August, 2025

15th August, 2025: Start Time: 20:45 Auckland, NZ; 16:45 Shanghai, China;10:45 CET; 09:45 London, BST; 04:45 EDT, New York, USA; (NB. 14th August: 22.45 Honolulu)

Location: Virtual. Conference held on Zoom & YouTube

Cost: Free event

Although you may have missed some of the live webinars, the pre-recorded sessions can still be viewed.

Quick Links for webinar registration and attending pre-recording presentations.

Video: Introduction to International Relaxation Day and the International Relaxation Day Conference, 2025 with Prof Stephen Palmer PhD

12/08/2025

FREE CONFERENCE: International Relaxation Day Online Conference, 15th August, 2025

Conference Theme: Harnessing Relaxation to Enhance Wellbeing
Depending upon your time zone, the conference is held on 14th & 15th August, 2025
Location: Virtual. Conference held on Zoom & YouTube
Cost: Free event

This is our annual conference in support of International Relaxation Day. A day to relax, or take timeout of a busy day, and perhaps learn about relaxation techniques at the free virtual international conference.

Key:
* = Live Zoom webinar or meeting.
+ = Pre-recorded presentation premiered on YouTube.

Quick Links to register and/or attend each session below. Times in BST (UK time):

1. *Harnessing Relaxation to Enhance Wellbeing with Prof Stephen Palmer & Dr Siobhain O’Riordan 09:45 BST to 11:15 BST. Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GJKJZ9o7QBWBsc0kqduiGw

2. *Relaxation Club with Prof Stephen Palmer & Dr Siobhain O’Riordan. 11:45 BST to 12:45 BST. Register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/mzdbIvSLR26rdSKYJbk-Ig

3. +Mindfulness - a trainable dimension of health and wellbeing with Dr Karen E. Neil. 13:00 BST to 13:30 BST. View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUAlijghms0

4. +Sufi Qawwali Music for Stress Management with Yumna Ali. 14:00 BST to 14:30 BST. View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4EviXg-WKE

5. +Coping creatively and using creativity to cope: How creativity can be applied in meditation and stress management with Dr Qing Wang 14:45 BST 2.45pm. View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7t8aiq473A

6. *Leadership, self-care and relaxation with Dr. Richard MacKinnon. 15:00 BST to 16:15 BST. Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zp7b5i_gQYGedK7ZU0UuXA

7. +Relaxation for All: Cultivating a Way of Being in Everyday Life with Prof Stephen Palmer PhD (32 minutes) 16:30 BST 4.30pm. View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dnmj-NZFf7c

8. +Mission Impossible? Reclaiming calmness in a highly anxious world, with Judit Varkonyi-Sepp. View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRK4v8tezR4

Welcome to the International Relaxation Day Online Conference, 2025. We have presentations from relaxation and stress experts, academics, researchers and practitioners from around the world sharing with us their knowledge about relaxation and mindfulness methods and techniques.

For ease of watching internationally with the different time zones, there are some live presentations using the Zoom Platform and some are pre-recorded which are premiered on YouTube.

For the live keynote papers, afterwards, speakers will join attendees in a Zoom Meeting room to discuss their presentations.

Visit the conference website for full programme details: https://www.internationalrelaxationday.com/ird-conference-2025/

Welcome to the International Relaxation Day Online Conference, 2025. We will have presentations from relaxation and stress experts, academics, researchers and practitioners from around the world sharing with us their knowledge about relaxation and mindfulness methods and techniques.

25/07/2025

Introduction to International Relaxation Day & the Conference, held on 15th August, 2025

Coming soon is International Relaxation Day (IRD) and our free virtual IRD Conference, 2025. We will have presentations from relaxation and stress experts, academics, researchers and practitioners from around the world sharing with us their knowledge about relaxation and mindfulness methods and techniques.

The conference may interest members of the public, HR, health professionals, psychologists, counsellors, coaches, managers and academics who may wish to learn more about relaxation techniques and their benefits to enhancing health and wellbeing, and reducing stress and anxiety.

The introductory video includes 9 minutes of information about IRD and the IRD conference and then at the end, a 10 minute recording of birds singing at dusk in west Kent, England, UK.

Conference Recognition

The conference is recognised by the Association for Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy and the International Society for Coaching Psychology for continuing professional development (CPD). Both organisations support International Relaxation Day.

© 2025, Stephen Palmer & Siobhain O'Riordan, International Relaxation Day.

Audio recording: © 2020, Stephen Palmer: Birds at dusk in a woodland, located in west Kent, England.

Introduction to International Relaxation Day & the Conference, held on 15th August, 2025Welcome to the International Relaxation Day (IRD) and our virtual IR...

16/08/2024

IRD Conference presentation: Mindfulness for coming together in stressful times with Lorenza Clifford

Mindfulness demonstration: At under 15 minutes it is fairly simple, containing a permission invitation for calmness and tranquility and cues for turning attention to the body and breath, cues for noticing and releasing tension and then an invitation to join in some nature based metaphor work, for relaxation and self resourcing in presence with nature, self and each other, with cues for presence and harmony at the end.

The International Relaxation Day Online Conference, 2024 has presentations from relaxation and stress experts, academics, researchers and practitioners sharing with us their knowledge about relaxation techniques. For ease of watching internationally with the different time zones, our conference has been pre-recorded. Visit the conference programme webpage for links to the video recordings: https://www.internationalrelaxationday.com/ird-conference-2024/

Lorenza Clifford BSc MSc (Occ Psych) is an executive coach and coaching supervisor with a background in Psychology who founded Coachange.org: working with leaders and coaches to face what is going ‘with the grain’ of who they are, and their nature, ecosystems and economy.

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/X2cB96-LP7Zo_qNPfz3cG0P7ovHkBcL9gSgx7PCoLHR4gtmhv2Y6C5yU0uqRlN94.124FZEt4i73KBc5p

Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, confer...

15/08/2024

15th August - International Relaxation Day Conference presentation: Mindfulness for relaxation, with Liz Hall Coaching

This session explores what mindfulness is, how traditional mindfulness and relaxation techniques compare and differ, and how we can combine these for wellbeing, including relaxation. It finishes with a guided mindfulness for relaxation practice.

Liz Hall, Editor of Coaching at Work magazine, is a leadership/executive coach and trained mindfulness teacher (including with Bangor University’s Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice). She teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction to adults, and delivers mindfulness workshops in organisations.

The International Relaxation Day Online Conference, 2024 has presentations from relaxation and stress experts, academics, researchers and practitioners sharing with us their knowledge about relaxation techniques. For ease of watching internationally with the different time zones, our conference has been pre-recorded. Visit the conference programme webpage for links to the video recordings: https://www.internationalrelaxationday.com/ird-conference-2024/

Link to Mindfulness for relaxation video: https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/qkGjp26tLfnjvqr2x8oJZcyS59uTKZuse3iBdl4GMtlAPejVisjWKUSywRAje3W0.6CKJmbkt2RGFh_9t

Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, confer...

15/08/2024

15th August - International Relaxation Day Conference Keynote: Overview to Relaxation Techniques to reduce stress, enhance health and wellbeing with Prof Stephen Palmer PhD FAREBT and Dr Siobhain O’Riordan PhD MAREBT (Acad).

This keynote provides an overview to relaxation techniques and key research There will be an opportunity to have a go at a simple relaxation exercise and evaluate its effectiveness. This joint Keynote is a pre-recorded 90 minute presentation on Zoom.

The half-day conference provides CPD for AREBT & ISCP members and recordings will be available for 3 months.

Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, confer...

14/08/2024

Free Conference: Relaxation in practice with Judit Varkonyi-Sepp

This session premieres on 14th August at 16:00 NY, USA; 21:00 BST and 15th August at 08:00 New Zealand

In this session, Judit will provide a brief overview of some practical considerations to relaxation. Then also take you through a short relaxation practice that you can either join in doing or listen to as an observer.

Judit Varkonyi-Sepp CPsychol, CSci, AssocMISCP is a Chartered Psychologist and Health and Care Professions Council-registered practitioner Health Psychologist, a chartered member of the British Psychological Society. Judit works as a clinician in physical health settings in the United Kingdom National Health Service in a large acute teaching hospital and is a research fellow at the University of Southampton and Research Speciality Lead at the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. She is also a coaching psychologist in the National Health Service Leadership Academy.

The International Relaxation Day Online Conference, 2024 has presentations from relaxation and stress experts, academics, researchers and practitioners sharing with us their knowledge about relaxation techniques. For ease of watching internationally with the different time zones, our conference has been pre-recorded. The links to the video recordings go live on 15th August (depending upon your time zone).

Conference programme webpage: https://www.internationalrelaxationday.com/ird.../

The social media hashtags are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RiKaXqxk94

Relaxation in practice with Judit Varkonyi-SeppIn this session, I am going to give you a brief overview of some practical considerations to relaxation. I wil...

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