It’s Sunday, and I’m spending the day in the most productive way I know how…doing absolutely nothing đŸ™‚ There’s something extremely soothing, refreshing and healing about taking some time off from all the non-stop busyness of the week. A day of rest is important because it’s when we can appreciate everything that’s transpired during our week and give thanks for it, when we can quiet our minds from the endless loop of lists/tweets/appointments/status updates/E! News that occupy our grey matter during the week, and when we can generally slow down and just be in the moment.
Doing nothing on the beach is my favorite downtime of all!
Spending time with the people that matter most to us, enjoying a leisurely meal, reading a book, taking a nap…these are the things that recharge us and get the creative juices flowing again for the coming week.
Long, leisurely meals with family are the absolute best!
One of the things I’ve been trying to do lately is to imbibe the philosophy of the “Slow Movement“, which is basically a counter-movement to the current breakneck pace of life. Essentially, it proposes that slowing down one’s life improves and increases the quality of one’s creativity as well as one’s standard of living–i.e. slow food vs. fast food, slow travel vs. fast travel, slow fashion vs. fast fashion, etc.
Daily downtime with coffee and the occasional dessert
Instead of conspicuous consumption and constantly running after what’s bigger, better & faster, slowing down allows us more time to take in, reflect and better appreciate the finer qualities in life, and in each other. This makes for more conscious creating, instead of the constant haphazard rushing to meet deadlines that were “due yesterday” (doesn’t that sound all too familiar??).
So remember to always respect the need for downtime–it’s counterproductive to ignore it!
