Welcome to our Daily English Listening Practice with this week’s series:
10 Common English Expressions
for Feeling Relief or Calm
After you’ve felt stress or worry for some time, hopefully you eventually get some relief and start to feel better after all of that tension in your body. Today we talk about 10 common English expressions for feeling relief or calm and how to explain to someone that you are finally starting to feel better.
Listen to the English audio clips for information and pronunciation.
A Sigh of Relief
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Notes: lots of different ways to sigh; this is a sigh because you were worried or stressed about something, but then nothing bad happens or happened; often seen in subtitles
Feels like a Weight off my Shoulders
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Notes: when a big problem has been completed or is over, you can use this phrase; also, “feels like a weight has been lifted”
I can Finally Breathe
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Notes: sometimes it feels like we’ve been holding our breath waiting for something to happen, it’s been stressful thinking about something, so when it’s finally over, we feel like we can finally breathe; also, someone who is ‘suffocating’ you doesn’t allow you have a lot of freedom, if you separate yourself from them, you can finally breathe
I Feel Back to Normal
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Notes: used when you haven’t been feeling well or things have been stressful, you can use this term when you are back to feeling healthy or “back to normal”
Unwind
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Notes: un wine ‘d make sure this has a long i sound, when someone is stressed out they’re “wound up” so to “unwind” is to get rid of that stress.
De-stress
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Notes: “I took some time off to de-stress” “I should take some time to destress.” Similar to relax, but it kind of tells us that you were stressed out before, and you need to take some time to relax.
Unplug
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Notes: we use a lot of words that are related to technology like unplug, recharge, disconnect; these are just because we live in a very technology-heavy world and we can relate to that idea.
Get off the Grid
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Notes: the grid is an area where you can be located with technology, “getting off the grid” is getting away from all technology completely
Blow off some Steam
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Notes: informal, doing something active or physical to let out some energy or stress
Take a Load Off
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Notes: informal American expression, if you want to invite someone in to relax, because they look like they’re stressed out or tired, tell them to “take a load off”
Thanks,
Kat and Mark
