August 5th marked one month since I moved to Pennsylvania from Colorado.
I have fallen into a new routine, one designed to heal my fatigued adrenals and bring my body back into alignment. One that invites play.
My day ends at 8pm, when I crawl into bed and try to relax before falling asleep around 10pm. I review my day, meditate, write in my journal, make gratitude lists, hang upside down when my legs start to get restless. If I still have time and energy, I read. Last week, I finally finished Edgewood and managed not to cry.
My goal is to sleep straight through for nine hours. With some preliminary gentleness and grace, I can eke out seven before I’m wide awake. Staring into the darkness. Overcome by two seemingly incompatible emotions: excitement and boredom.
Come 5am, I’m like a puddle of yin and yang, swirling, hoping to return to sleep while simultaneously wishing I could get up and start my day. Sometimes, I put on an episode of New Girl and watch until my eyelids grow heavy. If that doesn’t work, I read. (The yin and yang reference is from another book I finished recently, Power of the Five Elements by Dr. Charles A. Moss.)
My alarm goes off at 7am. If I made it all the way to New Girl, I hit snooze. Otherwise, I begin my morning routine and finally get out of bed at 8am—a full 12 hours from where we began.
Sustenance
Most days, only two things seem to get accomplished: eating and working.
Due to present dietary restrictions and my current focus on gut healing, everything I eat has to be cooked, including fruits, veggies, and nuts. If you want to watch time slip through your fingers, this is the way to go. So, I try to treat it as a form of play.
Thankfully, I really like food. Some current staples are:
- Rolled oats with maple syrup, blueberries, coconut flakes, cacao nibs, and almond butter
- Dark Chocolate Quinoa Breakfast Bowl
- Paleo Cassava Flour Pancakes
- Tuna noodle salad (using brown rice pasta)
- Sweet potato with fried eggs and avocado
- Chicken tenders with roasted carrots
- Ground beef with peas and brown rice pasta
- Salmon with broccoli and lemon
- Cottage cheese with blueberries and honey
- Snacks from SimpleMills
- Hu dark chocolate
You can also find me blending entire cantaloupes and eating forkfuls of sauerkraut (which, according to my roommate, is not normal).
After breakfast, I usually squeeze in a quick yoga practice and a shower before planting myself at my desk, where I look at all the words until lunch.
Movement
Say what you will about cardio—it’s good for your heart! I try to take a walk around lunch. Sometimes it happens, sometimes not. But when it does, it feels like play to me.
The weather here in western PA is much different than I was expecting. It is hot, hot, hot in the summer and humid to boot. It’s cooled off a bit this week, though, which makes the walking more pleasant.
Beyond that, my afternoons are usually packed with deep work—mostly editing and proofreading. I’m continually blown away by the kindness and passion of my clients. I feel lucky to be working with so many incredible writers, creators, and innovators.
I try to wrap things up around 5pm so I can get started on dinner. And then, suddenly, it’s 8pm again, and I’m headed back to bed.
Resilience
Mentally and emotionally, I’m learning about the power of optimism and finding the good in all things (play!).
I focus on the fact that I’m here, still rising with the sun. I feel appreciation for the quiet streets in town and how easy it is to walk to the post office. Our mail is delivered bright and early in the morning, which is nice.
One of my roommates also works from home, which means we get to have work parties every day. And speaking of her, I get to live with one of my closest friends!? That is a whole new level of joy. I’m so grateful for both of my roommates and the fun we’ve had together so far. Get yourself a couple of friends who will take you to Barnes & Noble at 8pm on a Friday night.
Do I miss Colorado? Every single day.
But do I like hearing the clop-clop-clop of Amish buggies outside my window? Do I like watching fireflies during evening walks? Do I like the scent of damp earth after a hard rain?
Yes. I can appreciate those things, too.
There are still challenges present, but from this place of gratitude, they feel more surmountable than they did a month ago.
Onward
I turn 23 this week.
As I begin another trip around the sun, I have just two intentions: rest and play.
One to heal. The other to motivate me—to give the healing a purpose.
I have a tendency to become so focused on my goals that I forget why I’m aiming for them in the first place. But having written this post, I see the difference that just one month can make—organically.
Maybe, in the end, the things worth aiming for are the things that feel like fun.
“Stop and smell the roses” is what my grandmother wrote to me in one of the sweetest birthday cards I have ever received. This year, I’m actually going to try it.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
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