Let’s set the mood. Dimly lit bathroom with your favorite candles all around filling the room with scents of a lavender field, soft and sweet relaxing music plays, a huge soaker tub filled with luscious bubbles and bath salts, a bathtub caddy sits with delicate flowers, a glass of your favorite beverage, and a delightful book for your reading pleasure. In seeing this and stepping into the tub, you immediately release the tension as you slide into position and sip that perfect drink.
I don’t know about you, but while I can very much appreciate the scene above, baths are not for me. Sorry, Jen Hatmaker, but I don’t find them enjoyable. However, the sentiment expressed here is key. Recently, I have been exhausted figuring out what is next and how to get there. This achiever needs to get to the next thing. In constantly looking for what is next and pushing myself, I forget the value of releasing and resting. Whoops! Unfortunately, for me this leads to serve burnout manifesting as a short fuse, quick to snap, and a fierce competitive spirit against everything and everyone. Eeek, not my best. Then it can become self-deprecating and draining. I hit that wall recently. What is helping me? Doing my version of self-care, which isn’t soaking in a bubble bath. For me it varies, today it is doing nothing but binge watching Marvel movies and snuggling under blankets. Other days it is crushing a run, reading a book, eating lots of fresh fruit, and gaining knowledge. Sometimes it looks like game nights with friends. All these things fill me up when I’m feeling depleted and defeated.
It is okay to stop when needed and take a small break. I needed to hear this so I thought maybe you did too. Resting is key and essential to success and recovery. In 2020, I was so focused on achieving and not letting the pandemic keep my goals at bay. I did not rest and just kept moving into 2021. Nonstop motion is not sustainable, and although I knew/know this, it seems as though I have to continually live through it to (re)learn it.
So today and recently, I’m giving myself permission to rest and recharge in whatever way that is needed. Today it looks like watching the Avengers movies, cuddling with Kaiser, getting a run in, and writing this blog. That’s it. Yes, there are dishes to do, cleaning that can be done, packing that should happen. But, I’m at capacity so to build back up, to kick butt and take names, meanings slowing way down. Until being reset, I’m resting. If you need to, then you should too–however it looks for you to it
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“Rest and motion, unrelieved and unchecked, are equally destructive.“
~Benjamin Cardozo
former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Greater Than 