Friday, August 23, 2013

The August Slow Down


Self-care is a challenge. I'm a woman who likes to be busy; I suppose I place too much of my self worth on what I accomplish. But when my doctor told me I had to chill just over a month ago, I finally took it seriously. I've almost made it a month in my quest to relax, heal my adrenal fatigue and adjust from my old job to freelancing part time for now. Telling a overly productive woman to slow down, rest and chill out is worth laughing at, but I'm learning. August has been a month of fun, play and rest. I went to antique markets with my mama, sat in coffee shops and read creative blogs and wrote, started working part time for creative venues as a content writer/photographer/teacher...let me tell you, it's hard to go from work 50/60 hour weeks to 20ish.

I took myself on a solo-camping trip and discovered just how hard it was to just be and not feel like I should be working on a million writing projects I'm dreaming up. (I did have one published on Elephant Journal.)


It rained but I still enjoyed it.

Then a week later my family went to the Oregon coast where we spent summers all of my childhood playing on the beach, exploring the small towns and window shopping.


We strolled, laughed and spent time together, and although it was only a few days. I came home feeling refreshed despite a few mishaps with food allergy issues. I'm learning to admit my weaknesses, and that rest is okay and letting go is even better. But most importantly, I'm learning that life doesn't always look like the vision you had in your head - yes, absolutely I could work my butt off to have the job with the fancy title, the cute home, or the perfectly assembled outfit, but is it worth it for me? No. (My adrenals tell me no anyway...I'll get there too.) Joy, community, rest and play far outweigh a big paycheck.

Today I leave for one more self-care adventure for this month - a 3 day creative/yoga retreat in the mountains - and after that I'll have to think more seriously about how to maintain balance while adding in some more work hours. But for now, I'm enjoying rest.

I hope you all practice great adventurous self-care this weekend.

No comments:

Post a Comment