Mantra for Monday no. 71

I. Need. To. Slow. Down.

This past weekend was a stark testament to that fact. This past weekend was my birthday. It wasn’t a crazy affair with mad drunken parties or anything of that nature. I had some simple plans with friends and therefore plenty of time to spend ‘relaxing’ before and after...yet somehow that simply didn’t happen at all. Not one little bit.

To be frank, I am really frustrated with myself. I know I am pretty bad at taking time out, but I always thought I had it under control; that I could do if I wanted to but just didn’t feel the need.

Huge reality check! I was not able to relax on the two days I had specifically put aside to do so, and on the days when I probably needed it most.

This was how yesterday should have gone:

• Wake up without alarm
• Spend morning leisurely having a simple breakfast from one of my tried and tested quick and easy favourites
• Read some books/magazines/go for a walk- anything I fancied
• Have a shower/bath with nice pamper products
• Meet friends at 1pm for lunch at a Thai restaurant
• Get home early evening, chill out with my mum, have a long soak in the bath.
• Snuggle up in bed nice and early with a book or my journal to write some reflective thoughts.
• Feel refreshed waking up early for work the next morning

This is what actually happened:

• Wake up without alarm
• Immediately feel stressed because I woke up an hour later than usual and I had a lot to do before going out
• Spent a couple of hours doing some architecture work for a client that I hadn’t been able to finish on Friday evening as I was a too tired (and it needed to be completed for Monday)
• Realised I’d never got round to making the ‘cake’ I had planned to blog for my birthday with the feeling that ‘if I didn’t do it now it would be too late’. So I spent an hour or so preparing and photographing that (it did look and taste good though!)
• Realised it was 12:30pm already and I still had all my getting ready to do
• Showered and dressed in the space of 20 minutes so that I could be ready (almost) on time (as it happened my friend arrived 15 mins late to pick me up so I had 5 minutes to sit outside and catch my breath as I waited.
• Met friends and had a really lovely afternoon
• Got home at about 6pm to find an email my from the client needing minor changes to drawings.
• Made changes.
• Made mistake of looking at social media and got sucked in.
• Got to bed at 11:30pm feeling frustrated that I hadn’t found a moment to relax.
• Wrote down a few hurried thoughts with a mission statement to learn to relax this year!
• Got to bed at 12am with a 5am start in the morning.

I need to slow down. I need to simplify. It needs to start now.

More posts to come on this topic I feel. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts and advice...all very welcome...I obviously could do with it!

What is a Mantra for Monday?