Why I did absolutely nothing this past Monday (and why you shouldn't hate me for it)

This past Monday, I did nothing. Ok, not totally nothing - I had one early meeting with a new photographer friend in Georgetown for an hour, but then I rushed home afterwards and did nothing. Na-da. There was a whole lot of sitting.  A bit of reading. Some napping. Oh and a bath with essential oils and epsom salts.

So before you stop reading in disgust about my lazy, basically unproductive Monday, let me tell you about the weekend prior. On Saturday, I prepped (for about 2 hrs) and then taught a 2-hour workshop all about seasonal self-care.  It was so much fun and a great success but it was exhausting.

Immediately after the session ended, I raced home to start preparing for a big dinner party I was hosting for some old friends who were in town.  Poor planning, but also something I wanted to do in order to spend quality time with them and cook for them (food = love when I cook for you!).  The meal was wonderful, the evening so much fun, but again a bit tiring and I ended up slicing my finger pretty bad at the end of the night while cleaning up. Ouch! 

Now comes Sunday. Sunday, I felt like I was shot out of a cannon. A fun-filled, friend-filled, farmers-market-filled cannon, but a cannon nonetheless. Sunday found me waking up hosting a brunch for both my and Taylor's little brothers (my bro was in town visiting from Palo Alto) and it was a blast. But a wee bit tiring.  After brunch ended, we hurried over to the Dupont Farmers Market to wander and enjoy, careful to get shopping in well before the start of the Redskins game. On the way back from Dupont, however, we got caught in some pretty nasty traffic and construction.  

Despite the fact that I am a meditation teacher, traffic cuts along a special stress-out nerve that is sometimes very hard for me to turn off. Cue heart palpitations and under-the-breath muttering all the way home.  As soon as we got home, I quickly changed then drove off to a bridal shower for a dear friend (which was exquisite and lovely) but it was a whirlwind as I had to leave that early to jet back to DC and teach one meditation class east of the Hill at 5:15 and another across southeast Capitol Hill at 7:15. Afterwards I cooked an easy dinner and basically collapsed into bed. 

Needless to say, I was pretty darn tired on Monday. Now I don't share this story with you to sound impressive or wear busyness as a badge, but more so as a reminder of how crazy our schedules are and as a validation for me (and others) that it's OK to take breaks during traditional 'work days' - especially when one teaches a great deal on the weekends.  Even though I've been girlbossing for almost 5 months now, it's still hard for me to relinquish some of my ambitious must-be-always-productive-work-ethic and set aside a work day to tune-in to what my body needs. This Monday I needed rest. LOTS of it. And it's always ironic when I teach self-care workshops and share with students inspiring quotes touting benefits of self care, and providing motivation to put themselves first (so that they can be better partners, workers, daughters, brothers, friends, etc) - but I find I don't always practice what I preach.

This Monday, I did. I know for many creative types, Saturdays and Sundays become 'on' days and more traditional 9-5 work hours can be used for rest. They can also be used for getting swirled into Instagram holes, Facebook holes, and feeling waves of indecisiveness, doubt, and anxiety about how to prioritize all the to-dos in your life.  My advice no matter what your work schedule is to make sure you carve out time for Y-O-U. Call it a self-care-sabbath, call it your R+R time, call it whatever you want but make sure you do it. And if you ever feel guilty, remember the words of Audre Lorde:

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”

Happy lounging and lazy-ing around friends. Wishing you lots of rest and time to do nothing at all.