Unplug and Recharge
I’ve been thinking a lot this past week about the importance and benefits of unplugging from technology and social media and getting back out into nature. As I sit here 34 weeks pregnant in the middle of July, I am extremely grateful for air conditioning. I have (understandably) not been outside as often this summer as I normally would be with my girls. I have also been working on multiple projects and squeezing in time to focus on work whenever I can. My husband and I are both guilty of being the kind of people who “don’t find relaxing that relaxing.” Don’t get us wrong. We want to relax. We need to relax. We just also find doing things energizing. Relaxed me is extremely efficient and gets SO. MUCH. DONE. Stressed me gets nothing done because I can’t focus on anything but my stress.
Partly because our baby is due at the end of the summer, we did not book any extended summer vacations this year. We had two weekends away, and that was it. Part of me wishes I had taken my family to the beach anyway, but the other part knows I would have spent it looking at the beach from my air conditioned window. So instead I am focusing on using my time efficiently when I have blocks of time to work and fully enjoying shorter stretches of time enjoying nature.
Earlier this week we finally had a reprieve from the intense heat and humidity that has been so pervasive this summer in Alexandria. I went for a nature walk with my girls (we literally walked up and down the sidewalk in our neighborhood with magnifying glasses), and I was reminded that these little moments of time outside can be just as recharging and reenergizing as a week at the beach if you let them. I am so thankful for the time I get to spend with my girls and the way they help me to see the world from a child’s perspective again. Something as simple as a mushroom growing in your yard or the way the leaves on the tree sway back and forth as you lie underneath it can be equally fascinating and peaceful.
I am setting a goal for myself this week to be better organized and focused with my time. I’ve always been a big believer in the “assassin’s hour” where you work intensely for one hour to get as much done as possible, then let yourself take a break. The world doesn’t need more stressed out, overworked people walking around. It needs balance. Calm. Peace. I hope that you get yourself out into nature this week, whether that’s in your backyard, an outdoor city cafe, or an exotic beach with a mojito in your hand. If it’s the last one, please take me with you next year! What will you do this week to help yourself unplug when you need to and recharge your soul?
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