A good recliner can be a fine place to have a period of rest and relaxation. Take a mini vacation from the hustle and bustle and find a half hour or forty minutes to just consciously rest and relax. It might not be as easy as you think. Our natural restlessness and desire to be accomplishing things can definitely get in the way. But it all can wait as you lie back and sink into the chair or bed or whatever affords the greatest comfort.
Rest and relaxation have a natural course to take with certain specific experiences as a part. Arms and legs get heavy. Hands, and maybe feet, become warmer. Head cools; mind settles down and becomes quieter. A gentle paralysis renders you immobile or disinclined to move. Sleep may come or may not perhaps depending on how tired we are. This is an altered state in that it is different from what we usually experience when we are conscious and awake.
Our cats and dogs are experts at this. We most likely are not. Our thoughts too often tell us to keep moving, stay active, get things accomplished. That is all well and good but there is this other side to our natural functioning and to indulge it, on occasion, is to find our balance and our capacity for healing.