If you are looking for an effective way to demonstrate balance in your life, combining seemingly disparate activities is a good way to start.
It’s also a pretty good way to show that you do not have a handle on anything you’re doing.
Today I spent the afternoon baking cookies and doing yoga. At the same time.
I set the timer for 10 minutes, ran to my mat to play, and back, on repeat for an hour. I wish I could tell you this is part of a new online course I’m offering, but it was actually two things I wanted to do and I slept too long to do them separately.
A friend of mine posted an article earlier this week called, “5 Self-care Strategies That Aren’t Fucking Mani-Pedis,” and, while it’s extremely helpful overall, it struck me that most of it comes down to creating boundaries.
Stop saying yes to shit you hate. Or at least stop acquiescing to shit that low-key gets on your nerves.
I’m trying to make my life enjoyable and easy. And I’m not very good at it.
It’s difficult for me to not wholly embody the busy worker bee who never stops, never slows down. I mean, it’s not hard because I love doing nothing, but it’s difficult to let go of this mentality. If I just kept going, surely there would be more I could get, more I could be. Fill up the dead space with the noise of a thousand hours worked.
I can’t hear you, doubts, I’m too busy.
Something snapped. Something moved under my fast feet. Something stopped me for long enough to listen to the nagging suspicion that I wasn’t even enjoying any time off because I had nothing to do in it and no one to see.
I’ve been sleeping a lot. Partly because I’ve been writing at dumb hours of the mid-aughts, but mostly because I’m catching up on a lot of mental clarity.
(Also I love sleeping and it’s nice to do things you like. Do all things with love and such.)
There are some pests in my inner-ears that tell me if I just worked a little harder, I wouldn’t be so lazy. If I picked up a few more things, I could save more money.
But would it be worth it or would it be noise?
I can hear you, doubts. I'll let you finish your monologue.
At some point, darting between the oven and the mat, it occurred to me that I might just be terrible at setting boundaries for myself. Making noise for no reason all over the place.
But it’s noise I love in the alive space I have created. It will never cease to amaze me that I have jobs that I love because I made some decisions. That Wednesday is a day I made out of cookies and yoga.