Aren’t children a marvel? They really know how to pull every last drop of goodness out of a day. They focus on what they are doing at each moment and yet they manage to notice the smallest details. Somehow they do all of this with no concern about time ticking away. Children experience time very differently than we do. They see it as endless. In their worlds, there is plenty of time to get everything done. In an effort to help all of us be more childlike about time, I am sharing a podcast I listened to this past week.
It is an episode from the Hidden Brain podcast. One of my favorite parts of the podcast was about treating weekends like a vacation. I loved this idea so much I thought I’d give it a try. As a self-employed person, I tend to allow every day to be a work day. I find this approach allows me to take care of the families I work with in a way that works for them. Anyway, I thought, why not try a vacation approach to the weekend? It seemed like fun.
For my vacation weekend, I made plans to go to the beach and stay as long as I wanted to, walking, sitting, and watching the waves roll in and out. Talk about relaxing! For my Sunday vacation day, I went to my local farmer’s market. This actually wasn’t unusual for me to do. I do my shopping there every weekend, but this time, I meandered and took my time. I pretended I was a tourist on vacation and took a much slower approach to my shopping. Once home, instead of rushing to get everything put away, I took my time. Once I completed my farmer’s market experience, I grabbed the newspaper (yes, I am that one person who still gets an actual Sunday newspaper) and headed out to the backyard. Feet up, I read the paper from cover to cover. Wow! I hadn’t done that in a super long time! There were so many birds singing and little squirrels running. Neighbors were making happy neighbor sounds and children were playing outside.
It did take a little effort to maintain the “vacation weekend” thinking while at home. A few simple reminders did the trick though. It was so worth trying this experiment. By the time Monday rolled around, I was much more relaxed and ready to face the week.
Since I don’t have any little ones running around my house these days, I realize my experience is going to be slightly different from some of you reading this post, but you can still accomplish a vacation weekend even with kids. Loading them up and heading to the beach or a new park for a fun day of outdoor activities and a picnic can be just as relaxing. It isn’t about what you do as much as it is about the attitude. Thinking you have all of the time in the world and are on vacation really works! You can relax and enjoy the weekend so much more effectively when assuming this way of thinking.
One thing I did think about in advance is the fact that I tend to prep for my week on Sunday in order to not feel so rushed each weekday. I prepare my menus and get things organized in advance. In order to not feel pressure to accomplish these tasks on my vacation weekend, I made sure I had planned ahead with some meals in the freezer and the knowledge that we might eat out a bit more this particular week. I made sure that the things that would distract me from relaxing were dealt with in advance, and that those things I could not do in advance, I made a plan about how to ignore them.
At any rate, this was my simple experiment based on the podcast. It is a podcast that will require 50 minutes of your time. I think at the end of the 50 minutes you will be ready to experience time differently and plan your own vacation weekend. Hopefully, in a way that will allow you to feel as though you have enough time and tools to lift the pressure of time from your shoulders and to experience time in a more childlike manner. Happy listening and happy weekend vacations to you!
Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with Hidden Brain and I do not receive any benefits as a result of suggesting their podcast.