In addition to carving out time for meditation, I’ve been trying to figure out how to create time for play as well. We tend to stop playing as adults, but it keeps us creative, adaptable, and more resilient to stress. The trick for me is finding activities I like that don’t have productive outputs or external standards attached to them.
I have created a ritual for myself: before and after work every day I take 10 minutes and meditate, which helps me calm down, focus my attention, be present, and mentally transition between work and home time. Making it a formal part of my schedule helps to ensure that I do it, and making it clear to my family that I need it helps to keep me accountable.
Getting back from a restorative two-week vacation, I talked a big game about making time for myself on a regular basis. Recognizing that I’m in a job with higher stakes than I’ve ever had before and that my physical and mental health could be at stake if I don’t make myself a priority, it’s time to make good on that claim.
So often in the corporate world we link busyness with value. As a manager, especially in a remote work situation, I try to stress that results are more important than image, and that productivity is a function of self care. Eighteen months into the pandemic, my team practically shoved me out the door for a vacation so I could finally practice what I preach.
Burnout is real, and time off is important. But, the way I do vacations, I usually come back more exhausted than I left. Christian and I took two weeks off for a road trip to visit friends and see the West, and we might be on to something with a more realistic pace, more unstructured down time, and more schedule flexibility than we’re used to.
Now that I am fully vaccinated, I should be excited about seeing friends and family again, but the prospect of socializing has filled me with more anxiety than relief. I’ve gotten used to a quieter, more mindful existence over the past year, and as “returning to normal” looms on the horizon, I can admit that there are some things I don’t want back.