Welcoming the Weekend
It’s been a week. Four nights of football practice, swim team, soccer practice. Helping set up and break down an elementary space for learning. Getting a son to work, making sure another is showing up for his work and sports commitments. Early mornings, full school days, busy evenings. One more swim practice to take a son to, and then I am celebrating with take-out and rest! Yes, there will be a soccer game tomorrow, and a cross-country meet to attend, but I plan to move into my weekend with an attitude of chill.
I used to try to plan fun trips or camping for Labor Day weekend, but I learned that all of these August/early September weekends need to stay as easy and quiet as possible. Our adrenals have been overloaded as of late, and need restoration with sleep, decompressing, slowness, connection at home. Card games. Subs. Bike rides. Naps. French toast and bacon. Calendars put away. Productivity shelved. Sabbath.
What brings you rest? What makes you feel deeply restored and like yourself? Everyone is different. For me, it’s spending hours lost in a fictional land between the pages of a novel, puttering around my house and yard, decorating small corners, eating something delicious, tidying up my common living areas, napping. I don’t receive restoration from lots of input, information, or interactions. My brain gets overloaded during the week, and I need to create personal boundaries to limit ever-increasing stimulation. That is not easy to do, but I see more and more about how I need emotional margin.
What if we treated the next few weekends like staycations? What could that look like? What is the difference between naming the weekend vs. just letting it happen? These are my Friday afternoon ruminations as I think about what it looks like to work hard, play hard, rest hard. High engagement + high restoration.
I hope you are able to find some space this weekend…expansive breath in your lungs, time to “waste”, avenues and paths that make you feel like a soft human and not a machine. You are loved in all your needy humanity.
Aimee