A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 14 – Rest & Recuperation
November 16, 2020
“Rest when you need to,” Fiona Ferris writes as the title for Day 14 in her book, 30 Chic Days At Home. She encourages us to listen to what our bodies may be telling us and take a breather when we are feeling tired. Driving ourselves to exhaustion with never-ending to-do lists and skimping on sleep drains the joy out of our lives.
Fiona offers the idea of taking maybe a 20-30 minute break in the afternoon/early evening – enjoy a cup of tea or look at a magazine. Another suggestion is to create a lovely, bedtime ritual that gently moves us to bed a lttle earlier than our usual habit (maybe before we are actually staggering and bleary-eyed with exhaustion.) All of us have lived through periods in our lives when circumstances required that we push ourselves much harder than would be a healthy habit. Hopefully, those periods have passed (or will soon pass) and we can recalibrate our mindset to choose a mentally and physically healthier daily routine.
Oddly, when I worked full-time, I took better care of my sleep and rest routine. I had the daily habit of microwaving a hot lunch (usually something like home-made stew or meatloaf that I had brought from home for the whole week) and then taking at least a 30-minute lunch either reading a book or sharing fun coversation with a good friend who worked in the same building. I also had the luxury that I could park on the other side of the large green space that encircled the collection of my work buildings. Each morning and afternoon, I had a 15 minute brisk walk to and from my car through a pretty park-like area.
Once I left the full-time office environment, I had to learn a different structure and routine for my day. It took me awhile to prioritize my quiet “lunch hours” and my walking time. Maybe because I felt like I had so much free time that I “shouldn’t” need to schedule a quiet time and a walking time in my daily to-do list? Without those two set-aside rest activities, I found myself cranky and exhausted by 5pm (which is the “crazy” time anyway at my house.) Once I put a quiet, sit-down, hot lunch and a designated walk-date with myself (usually right after lunch or at 3pm) back on my daily to-do list, I found that my energy and my emotional equillibrium were back on track.
I like Fiona’s discussion on rest and walking in this chapter. Life can be hard enough – let’s consciously choose to honor our mental and physical well-being by getting enough sleep, taking a short sit-down break, if we are feeling a bit tired, and enjoying a delightful walk each day. (One hint for implementation that really helps me: turn away from the electonic thing – it will be there when we get back.)
