(not necessarily in that order)
In the interest of rest, I’ve done my best to avoid fully engaging my brain today.
It felt nice to occupy myself with things like watching a silly movie while folding laundry; washing dishes; watering the garden; and chatting with a friend.
I think my brain appreciated the downtime.
My plan was to share some thoughts and discoveries about resting.
But it’s been such a full day that I’ll let that wait for another day and simply go and…
Rest.
This was a day to lay low, rest, and putter around the house.
All too often, I end up feeling bummed by the end of a day like this because I feel like I should have done something.
Today turned out different. Sure enough, I caught myself looking around and thinking, “I should do this” or “I should really do that“, but not wanting to do any of those things at all.
Then I remembered the instant pot that I bought on sale last June, but was so busy with Spiritual Renewal Week that I never even opened the box! It’s been on my mind lately because I’m needing more variety in my meal planning.
So, I unboxed it, read the instructions, and found a place for it to live by rearranging a shelf.
And it felt like a major accomplishment for such a low energy day.
Ramesha and I are agreed that this was one of our best vacations ever. So, it seems wise to make note of what worked, in order to remember it for next time.
Being near the main drag of Carmel allowed us to park at the hotel and then not touch the car again until the morning we left. We walked to restaurants; we walked to pick up groceries; we walked to parks; and we walked to the beach. I had slacked off on walking during my last challenge, but these three days more than made up for it!
On our first full day we arrived back at our room pooped out from lots of walking and ready for a nap…only to realize that some new hotel guests had arrived in the room directly above us and they were really noisy! Heavy footsteps, loud laughter, banging doors type noisy.
It was bad enough in the afternoon but our intuition told us they were there to party and we weren’t eager to be woken up in the wee hours of the morning. So, we asked to move to a different room! It was a little annoying having to pack everything up and then unpack it again, but we were soooo glad we did! And we realized that in future we should always ask for an upstairs room.
We loved having very little on our agenda. We did virtually no sightseeing and oriented our “schedule” around eating delicious meals whenever we were good and ready.
We got plenty of rest, getting to bed early and not being in a rush to get up and go.
Adding to all that was the natural charm and beauty of Carmel — uniquely quaint buildings; flowers blooming everywhere; stunning artwork in every other shop; the beautiful white sand beach; and some of the nicest, most genuinely friendly restaurant people we’ve ever encountered.
All in all, it was a perfect vacation!
So the first and foremost exercise for healing my shoulder is…resting. On my back. For as long as I can, as many times a day as I can. It’s an Egoscue exercise called Static Back and I’m beginning to see it as a metaphor for my life.
How often I’ve thought nothing would improve or heal unless I was doing something! And, hopefully, a lot of something! I’ve been thoroughly conditioned to that way of thinking and it’s driven me to accomplish a lot of things in my life, for sure.
But what about the flip side? I haven’t been very good at the “resting” part of the equation. And as I lay in static back, I have lots of time to reflect that pushing, pushing, and then pushing some more eventually results in imbalance, pain, injury, and dysfunction.
Sigh.
I’m finally ready to stop. To listen. To rest and release.
When I think of a workaholic, the image that comes to mind is of a corporate businessperson in a suit. I don’t think of people like myself and Ramesha. But, actually, we sort of fit the bill…admittedly, in our own unique way.
The problem is that when you love what you do… when you feel a sense of mission… when there’s always one more project or task requiring your attention…then it’s easy to lose your sense of balance.
So it feels like a big win that, when we had to rethink our visit to Assisi (for a variety of reasons), we chose to forgo the trip in order to stay in Lugano and dedicate some serious time to rest, rejuvenation, and just being.
Aaahhhh….good for us!
