The day before Valentine’s day was wonderful - I had checked off all of my to-do’s, bought my husband Jacob’s gift, had a card prepared for him, and was finishing up some cleaning in our room when all of a sudden I felt it. The soreness that can only come from either
1) getting hit by a truck or
2) the Flu.
Now, mind you, I don’t just keel over and fall to the ground when I’m feeling slightly under the weather - I push through! There’s work to be done and things to get checked off lists and people to meet with, however this particular time I felt like it would be best if I just tumbled onto my bed and hid under the covers for 24 hours.
The only problem was, within 24 hours, Valentine’s Day was to have come and gone.
And so, I spent February 14th in bed, mostly asleep, instead of going to the theatre with Jacob and having a delicious meal at some up and coming Austin restaurant.
Fast forward 48 hours later and I felt so much better. I even had a wedding our team worked on Saturday and I was feeling good with a capital G. On my drive home that night, I called Jacob and he told me he had a surprise for me.
“Well what is it?” I asked.
(Side note: if you don’t know anything about how I am a very good surprise guesser go read about Jacob’s and my proposal story to see how I will question someone to the death until they tell me what’s going on.)
After pestering him with questions, Jacob finally cracked and told me he had booked a staycation at Hotel Van Zandt in downtown Austin the following day since our Valentine’s day plans were totally shot.
Needless to say I was STOKED. We absolutely love Hotel Van Zandt. It’s where Jacob and I had dinner the night he proposed!
On Sunday we packed our bags and headed downtown to have an evening away from computers, phones, apple watches and our normal day to day. And let me tell you friends - I didn’t know I needed that time until we got to the room and I felt like I could breathe!
You know the feeling when you unload a large bag off of your arms? That’s how I felt.
As a workaholic and a business owner, it’s so difficult to find times in my week and even my day to just tune out and focus on me.
Whether you’re a mom or a business owner or just a really, really hard worker - I can understand that it is so difficult to take time to focus on you, when everyone is pulling you in five thousand different directions. While my stay at Hotel Van Zandt was only 18 hours total, it was SO needed for my soul. I came back on Monday morning feeling so refreshed and rejuvenated.
For so long it seemed counterintuitive for me to take off to get more done later. I always thought that I could just work and work and work and get everything checked off before I would rest. I’m finding that there is always something to do, and because of that I don’t regularly take time for my marriage or myself.
Currently, I’m working on building that space in my life to enjoy the lifestyle I’ve chosen. I’m working with a group of girls and business mentor, and we all agreed this past week that finding time to relax is HARD and not something that comes easy for us to create.
In response to the growing problem, I’ve created 3 ways that I am going to start building space in my life each week to relax, rejuvenate and refresh so that I can come back into my job and serve my clients with a 110% of my effort.
Take a bath once a week
Go on a date night with my husband
Scheduling a full “REST DAY” in my calendar so that I can’t schedule anything else
These things may come extremely easy to others, but I’m not going to lie - giving up an evening where I could be creating, working or getting something checked off a to-do list is H-A-R-D for me. My mind is always racing towards the next thing I can do, so taking time to slow down, rest and honestly, empty out my brain is something I’m practicing.
Are there things that you do that give you complete rest? What are they?!
Also - if you have any tips on how to maintain work balance - SEND THEM TO ME PLEASE! Ya girl is always open to people’s thoughts on incorporating rest into the day to day.
Much love,
Kara