I hadn’t slept so soundly since I was in Colorado. Perhaps it was the altitude. Or perhaps it was just being away and having no obligations or stresses. No pressing concerns or anxieties sneaking into my dreams causing alarm or restlessness. Three days into a writing retreat in Vermont was the first I had touched my laptop.
Going into this trip, writing was not my priority, however. Recharging was. Also, enjoying a new place. I had never been to Vermont. There was no cell service or wi-fi; we were off the grid. The day I arrived I opened a historical fiction book, The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert. Other than breaking for meals and a 2 mile jog, I read all day. It was a splendid use of time (and p.s. the book is fantastic!). I went to bed and slept for ten hours, without even a cricket’s song to disturb me.
The next day I rented a stand up paddleboard and spent six hours at a gorgeous mountain lake. I paddled for nearly three hours around the perimeter of this pristine lake thinking not one serious thought, even though I tried. My mind and the setting simply wouldn’t allow for such nonsense. When my feet cramped, I straddled my board and soaked them in the cool water, caressing the surface with my fingertips, taking in my rocky forested surroundings and feeling at peace in my new element. I don’t know how long I slept that night because I saw no reason to check the time when I went to bed. One had nothing to do with the other.
Finally on the third day I wrote after a big breakfast and several cups of coffee. But I didn’t work for long. I went for a long jog along dirt country roads and after a shower I headed into town to treat myself to lunch at a brewery and do some exploring. The remainder of my trip was occupied by resting, reading, writing, and chatting with fellow female writers.
While vacationing in Colorado in May I wrote about stopping the glorification of busy. People seem to wear their agendas and task lists like badges of honor, bragging under the guise of complaining just how much they have going on. There seems to be a consensus that if you’re not incredibly busy then you don’t have a productive and meaningful/fulfilling life. I think I am in a position to whole-heartedly disagree.
I have stopped glorifying busy completely. After suffering through a few of the worst years of my life, I have lost all respect for stress and unrelenting busyness. It got me nothing but physical and mental agony and all the strained relationships and deteriorating health that go along with it. The Cracking Nut was born out of that time in my life as a life preserver I desperately reached for to help me return to a better state, physically and emotionally.
I am extremely vigilant now about the appearance of surplus stress in my life. My body has a highly sophisticated warning system that I ignored for years. Well, I finally read the manual. My body knows I am stressed before I do and now I know the warning signals. Stress has become as hideous an emotion as hatred and must be avoided at all costs.
My life is not stress-free, and I doubt it ever will be. I think we all know what’s normal for us – what our baseline level of stress is. Weekends at the beach and trips like this help me return to that baseline, and even dip below it. Taking a break from writing and reading about self-improvement when I am feeling burnt out helps me. Absorbing myself in a wonderful fiction book instead helps me. Turning the phone off and removing the leash of social media and communications helps me. Sleeping without an alarm (and catching up on sleep) helps me. Going for a long walk helps me. These are all means of retreat, withdrawing from the noise to a quiet or secluded place and doing those things that recharge us.
What helps you recharge? Napping, laughing with friends, reading gossip mags while getting a pedicure, walking in the woods? Do not sacrifice these things because you feel they are not priorities and because they don’t produce anything tangible. Recharging needs to be a priority. It does produce something tangible – a better state both emotionally and physically.
Remember, you can never be doing “nothing.” I did not go away to Vermont and do “nothing” just because I didn’t work nonstop on a novel or blog content. I read, I exercised, I slept, I enjoyed the company of other writers. This time was not wasted – not one second of it. I R.E.T.R.E.A.T.E.D.
Rested
Exercised
Traveled
Read
Energized
Ate healthy
Thrived
Experienced
Decompressed
Wow, Jessica, it sounds like you had a wonderful time. Glad you are feeling recharged, although I can't do the paddle board thing. I would get tired of standing in one place. Other than that, I recharge in nature. I love visiting new places and walking through woods or climbing mountains or walking along coastlines. That's what my family does in our camping adventures. I love getting away from the online world and lose my thoughts in nature. Thanks for sharing this with your followers.
It sounds like a wonderful trip.I'd love to stress less. Getting lost in a good book is beneficial to me.