Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.<\/p>\n
-Dylan Thomas, 1914-1953<\/p>\n
There are some days when I just want to curl up on the couch with a quilt and a good book.\u00a0 It can be strange how these days can seem to come out of nowhere. One day finishes beautifully, without any significant troubles, and then somehow after the evening\u2019s chaos, I drift off to sleep, and awaken tired and tight, and blue for reasons I don\u2019t understand, as if the sun has suddenly tucked behind a cloud.<\/p>\n
On these days, I find myself wanting to do the minimum: only the required meetings on my calendar, and not make progress on the longer-term deliverables. These are the days when my own positive pep talks seem annoying to me, and the view of unmade beds is both depressing and satisfying, in equal measures. But, I know, that if I can turn the pessimism around, being productive will make me feel more accomplished and satisfied.<\/p>\n
In these instances, I wonder, is it better to go ahead and take an afternoon for yourself, hoping it will melt the clouds away? \u00a0Or is it better to push through? \u00a0Like many things in life, I think the answer is, it depends.\u00a0 It depends on where the funk is coming from.<\/p>\n
This time of year I find myself questioning, have many days of dreary weather made me gloomy?<\/em> If so, acknowledging this can seem to make it better.\u00a0 Sometimes I need reminders to be kind and patient with myself.\u00a0 It\u2019s funny how we can be our own toughest critics, holding ourselves to expectations no one else would.<\/p>\n So, I may need to ask myself, am I truly just tired and worn out?<\/em>\u00a0 If so, watching a movie, reading a book, or wonder of wonders, taking a quick cat nap, can be restorative. In my favorite Vermont B&B, there is a wall hanging that reads, Time spent in Vermont is never wasted<\/em>. \u00a0I like that spending time in a place you love is always quality time.\u00a0 Likewise, perhaps time spent relaxing, or enjoying a hobby, is time well spent.<\/p>\n Other times, when I\u2019m not so sure what’s bothering me, a few hours of R&R is unlikely to break through the clutter. \u00a0To get back on track, I\u00a0need to figure out what’s causing it.\u00a0 But like Alice, sometimes \u2018I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid\u2026because I’m not myself you see.\u2019<\/p>\n I am truly in awe of people who know their own minds.\u00a0 For me, what\u2019s really going on is just below the level of my consciousness, and I\u2019m not always sure what the trouble is.<\/p>\n Yesterday, I wrapped up my day 30 minutes early, thinking a work out would help to clear my mind.<\/p>\n At about the second cycle of burpee sets, I was thinking, are you kidding me? <\/em>As my 4 year old is fond of saying,\u00a0This is not fun for me.<\/em>\u00a0 After that, I couldn\u2019t think of much of anything, except breathe.\u00a0 And maybe this is the point, the cessation of thinking. \u00a0At the end, I did feel more alert and limber.<\/p>\n Yet, today, my cloudy funk persisted.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n When this happens, I often need to write to identify\u00a0what\u2019s really going on.\u00a0 Today seems to be one of those days.\u00a0 In doing so, the answer comes.<\/p>\n I suddenly realize, I am overwhelmed with too many things. \u00a0I\u2019ve been traveling, one multi-day conference, one business trip to Boston, two business trips for my husband to Maryland.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been like ships passing in the night, capped by a long holiday weekend, and a flurry of new work requests at the start of this short work week.\u00a0 Seeing it written out this way, it is abundantly clear.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure why it was hard to get to the truth.<\/p>\n Strangely, feeling overwhelmed can cause\u00a0a type of paralysis for me.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure which of the pressing items on my list to tackle next, so I end up sabotaging valuable time, not doing any of them. Or, I don\u2019t know how to get started with a task.\u00a0 This type of nebulous procrastination too can be destructive, as it confounds my ability to accomplish other things, while my subconscious works out what to do next.\u00a0 In these instances, I need to confront my indecision head on.<\/p>\n And in understanding this, I know how to fix it.\u00a0 I breathe a sigh of relief, ready to get started. Somehow, not knowing why you feel despondent, can be the most unsettling emotion of all. I remind myself of some simple tactics that help me:<\/p>\n Resolution, as in music, is pleasing to hear, while sustained dissonance is difficult for the brain to process.<\/p>\n So, today I take myself to B&N during a three hour block on my calendar, determined to finish one of the major deliverables on my list this week. \u00a0I know once I\u2019m there the quiet buzz of conversation, concentration, and espresso machines humming will spur me into motion.<\/p>\n And with motion, will come energy and light.\u00a0 There\u2019s a time and place for gentle, but we are all the purveyors of our own happiness.\u00a0 The joy that clarity brings may be just a journal entry or a to-do list away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. -Dylan Thomas, 1914-1953 There are some days when I just want to curl up on the couch with a quilt and a good book.\u00a0 It can be strange how these days can seem to come out of nowhere. One… Continue reading There Are Days<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p78aL7-1c","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynnricker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynnricker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynnricker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynnricker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynnricker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/lynnricker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92,"href":"https:\/\/lynnricker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions\/92"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynnricker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynnricker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynnricker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n