Tag Archives: rest

Power naps

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I love power naps. Give me 20-40 minutes of quiet or soft non-lyrical music and a flat surface and I can nap just about anywhere. But quiet is a luxury, I could even nap on a pool bench with multiple Fox-40 whistles being blown as a water polo game is in progress.

Just give me a power nap and I’ll be back fresher than ever. But extend my rest time past 40 minutes and the power part of the power nap is inversely affected. Then I feel groggy for the rest of the day. Then I stay up too late and have another low power day on the horizon.

So while a quiet space might be a minor concern for me and my naps, either a timer or alarm is an essential. I’ve got to keep that time in check, then I’m returning from my nap fully charged.

The Crash

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So often when a break in the school year comes my body crashes. Often I end up sick with a cold, because I’m too busy to let myself get sick, then the lull comes and my body lets go. Luckily that didn’t happen to end the year. But yesterday I was doing a leg workout and on my second goblet squat my right knee did a little buckle and I twinged a muscle in my mid back.

This morning I took a deep breath in and my back seized. It’s a brutal recognition of my age when breathing can be the trigger to pain. It has been several years since I’ve had a crash this bad, my whole back has seized to protect this one overstressed muscle.

The stress of the last 3 months got to me and now I’ve got to take it really easy. My Norwegian Protocol won’t happen on this Sunday, I’ll have to make it up next week. Today I stretch, hot tub, stretch, and rest. And hopefully my recovery is swift. I didn’t get sick, but my body still crashed.

Extra down time

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It’s Sunday night and tomorrow is a holiday. I will be doing pushups for a monthly challenge, and meditating before bed, but I will be skipping my cardio workout today. No guilt, I’ve worked out every day since my last workout missed on January 27th, and I’m not up to getting my heart rate up before bed.

I feel like the Sunday of a long weekend is a very special kind of down time. A day like today was spent being productive, doing things that I like to do but seldom have time. I also got laundry done and it didn’t feel like a chore. I also just finished watching a couple episodes of a show my wife and I have been watching together.

…And I still have another whole day off! It seems like every long weekend I’ve been writing about how much I value 3 days off. It makes me wonder if we will ever see a shift away from the traditional Monday to Friday work week?

Even if it does change, education will probably be a last bastion of the 5-day week. Until it’s normal for everyone, kids need supervision during the work day. So from now until I retire you can expect a little social commentary on the joys of a three day weekend almost every time they come up.

Slow paced day

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After a couple days of busy holiday prep and celebration, I have had an absolutely lethargic day today. It took me hours to get off the couch and actually do some exercise, and now I’m feeling too lazy to go shower.

In an hour I’ll head to a nearby lake that’s lit up and enjoy a walk with my mom and kids, then it’s home for leftovers… and that’s my entire day!

Sometimes a lazy day is a good day, and today is one of those days. I did my cardio, I stretched, I did a long, single set of triceps… and I’m back on the couch writing. I was actually napping for about 20 minutes between paragraphs.

Too many days like this would make me feel unproductive, but today I am cherishing in the slow, lazy pace. If I get up to board games with my family tonight that will be a highlight. If we just spend the evening in front of the TV that would be fine too.

Sometimes doing nothing is a pleasant luxury.

Power up

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In video games there are opportunities to power up and replenish your resources. Health and strength are increased and the character is ready for more/new adventures.

After an exhausting week I needed a power up and I got it through sleep. I was passed out on the couch at 7:30pm last night, and I don’t remember anything until I got up just after 2am to brush my teeth. Then I was out again until about 5am. Now I’m up, feel wide awake, and ready to start my winter break.

It feels good to reach this point and only need an early bed time to replenish. There are times when I, and many educators, get to this point and crash and burn. So many times we reach a holiday break and then wake up the next day sick. Our bodies are too drained and we hold on just long enough to get to the break and then our system crashes.

That’s a hard way to start a break. Your body powers down and says, “I’m out… give me a few days to refuel and recharge.” Luckily that’s not the case for me this time. I had a nice extended sleep and I’m ready to go!

I think my commitment to starting my day writing and exercising are a big part of me getting into power up rather than power down mode. I start each day with a couple personal accomplishments and that sets my day up. No matter how tired I am, or how long the week feels, I give myself a daily power up so I don’t drain my batteries so much that I need to power down to replenish.

Going back to the video game analogy, I keep my health line out of the red and so when I power up I’m in the green zone. I’m not letting myself get too drained and staying in the red even after a power up.

Let the holiday break begin… I’m ready!

Last lazy day

Well today I did a whole lot of nothing. I came down to the basement do a workout 3 hours ago, and I have successfully completed a 10 minute row, less than 10 minutes of stretching, and an abdominal workout that lasted the length of a 2 minute and 40 second song. Hey, this might not be a typical workout… but I didn’t skip the day. Not every workout needs to be at 100%.

I listened to a part of a podcast, watched a few TikToks, and I’m writing this lying on my back next to a magnetic toy where I successfully made a couple DNA strands out of triangles. 

I’ve spoken about playing with geometry before, this ‘playing’ was the most productive part of my day.

Tomorrow is Day 1 of the new school year and the pace for the next month will be anything but lazy. So, I look at my 3 hours of ‘wasted’ time as time very well wasted. Today was the calm before the storm. Batteries are charging, and I’m taking full advantage of my last lazy day, not even caring that I’m mixing my metaphors. 🤪

Now off to pick up pizza, ain’t no way my wife and I are cooking tonight! 😀

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To all the educators out there, I wish you a fabulous year of teaching and learning ahead!

95% off

This isn’t about a discount, it’s about holidays. Today I had to order more licenses for our online language courses, and I also had to follow up on contacting an employee about making their position full time with me. Neither of these things took a long time. Neither of them are a problem, they both lead to positive outcomes. Neither of them could be done by someone else right now. They also both come to me while I’m at a campground on holidays.

[I stopped writing this earlier and was reminded to get back to it after a work related text message and subsequent email.]

It’s not a big deal, and yet it is. It’s me on 95% holidays and not 100%. It’s me not turning completely off, but rather having a slow drip that keeps my fingers wet from my work.

I am glad that I have the job that I do. I was a Starbucks manager before getting into education. I can’t imagine my life being happier if I stayed in positions like that. But sometimes I really wish my holidays gave me that last 5%. I sometimes really wish that when I got home after a work day that my job was 100% done until I arrived the next morning.

I’m enjoying myself. I won’t let the little things I dealt with disrupt the rest of my day. The holiday time is great and I’m making the most of it. It’s just some times I wish I got to have that last 5%.

Holiday from the holiday

Ever find that the day after a holiday is a day of recovery? It’s like needing a holiday to rest up from your holiday. I did a few necessary errands, but it’s taken me the whole day to get to my workout and now to writing, and I still haven’t meditated. It’s almost 5pm and I’m making frozen waffles for lunch.

That said, it’s date night at the theatre tonight and so it’s still going to be a great day overall. Yet I can’t help but feel like today was a recovery day. Just wondering if it’s only me or do others struggle with the after-holiday ‘blahs’ even though it feels good to be home?

4-day weekend

I’m looking forward to the Easter Break! Having both the Friday and Monday off is a treat. A 3-day weekend is nice, but getting that extra days makes this break special. It becomes a ‘real’ break where I know that I can actually let go of thinking about work. It allows true down time.

I find that a 4th day makes the break into a real holiday… and I can come back to work refreshed. I’d give up my second week of holidays at Christmas so that I could get a few more 4-day weekends throughout the year. I’m not sure that would be popular with everyone, but it would be ideal for me… Mini holidays throughout the year! Am I the only one that thinks this is a good idea?

Flaked out

I spent almost the entire day on the couch. I watched the NCAA Women’s Championship basketball game, the first full sports event I’ve seen on television in years. I slept. I left my phone charging away from me a good part of the day. I slept some more.

I finally got off the couch and got on the treadmill at 5:30pm, and I’m back on it an hour and a half later writing this. Now the day wasn’t a total waste, I had a great Zoom conversation with my uncle early this morning. And I had a bit of work that needed to happen, but beyond that the day was spent on the couch doing nothing.

Normally I’d look at this day and think of the time on the couch as wasted. But not today. I’ve had very little sleep the last few weeks thanks to a back and shoulder issue. I’ve felt like I haven’t been running on all cylinders, and I needed some flake out time.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to get back to doing a whole lot of nothing for at least a couple more hours. Maybe I’ll end the evening with a hot tub. Guilt free pleasures on a Sunday night. And I have no regrets for taking the time to do not much of anything… completely guilt free.