How To Have A Restful Day

Signs that you had a restful day:

• You found yourself sitting at a table somewhere with a cup of coffee. There’s good music playing.
• It’s 3 pm and you’re not sure what you did all day.
• When you woke up, you told yourself that you didn’t need to accomplish anything that day.
• You took a nap.
• You wandered around.
• You saw a cat.
• You called a best friend to chat.
• You called another best friend.
• You might call two more.
• Your breakfast took 2 hours.
• It’s possible that all you did today was to eat breakfast and eat lunch.
• When you see your to-do list, you say “Not today.”
• You looked deeply at some beautiful palm trees.
• No cafe seemed worthy of sitting down.
• You stood next to the water, on the beach, looking at the seagulls who were standing next to the water, on the beach, looking at the ocean.
• You’re wearing high-waist skinny jeans, a basic white t-shirt, and white sneakers.
• You treated yourself to a light make up.
• You feel tired because you finally allowed yourself to relax, and all the fatigue rushed in.
• When your friend asked you on the phone if something was going on with you, you finally had the space to say “Yes, there is.” and to talk about it.
• You looked at your hands, really looked at your hands, for the first time in a long while. You really like this ring you wear every day without noticing you wear it every day.

Signs that you had a busy, trance-like, stressful day:

• You calculate the number of minutes you have in between calls and if that’s enough time to finish _____.
• You only had __ minutes for lunch.
• You realized that you forgot to respond to that important email.
• You are spent and it’s only 6 pm.
• You told your best friend that you can’t call her until 10:30 pm.
• You had to choose between journaling, meditating and exercise. You are glad you were able to “get done” at least one of them.
• You go from goal to goal, from task to task. Some of your tasks are to set goals.
• You spent a good chunk of the day worrying about lack of alignment and miscommunication.
• You have this deep deep sense that you didn’t work enough today. You certainly could have worked more.
• You wondered a few times if you are a good fit for _______.
• Your back, shoulder or leg is hurting from sitting too much.
• You were late to at least one call.
• You don’t remember your larger core purpose.
• You’re not thinking straight.
• You’re not processing new information as fast as you normally do.
• Your hands seem to have a life of their own.
• You typed the wrong email address, again.
• You could do 20 minutes of yoga right now to alleviate back pain but you could also do one more slide on that deck.
• You don’t know anything personal about this human even though you have a meeting with them every week.
• You have 6 back to back meetings in one afternoon.
• You saw yourself in the mirror, in passing. You didn’t like what you saw. She seemed ugly, tired and distant.
• You remembered that you still haven’t responded to that important email.
• You count the days of the week as they go by. Only 3 more days until Sunday, which is your only non-work day.

Reflection Questions

1. What are some signs that you had a restful day? How does a restful day feel, look, move?
2. What are some signs that you had a busy, trance-like, “there isn’t enough time” type of day”? How does a busy day feel, look, move?