Skip to main content

New concept - free(ish) time

When I made the decision to go back to school, life changed, as we might expect.

What had been busy became ultra scheduled. What had been intense took on a whole new meaning within a medical education.

Priorities shifted.

I had no idea how much free time I had before I went to school. That time evaporated within 15 minutes of crossing into the halls of medical focus.

Flash forward to graduation, board exams, the scramble of early practice building, the commute involved with working two clinics, the endless focus on defining my practice, filling my schedule, etc. Not much free time there, either.

Then there was an engagement, followed by planning and prep and wedding focus. That didn't take tons of physical time, but, as I'm learning, the emotional/intellectual prep for such an event is significant.

And now it's done. It's over. The newlyweds are back home, settling into life as a married couple. We are adjusting to Life After.

Days are no longer filled with wedding prep. My practice is slowly building, and while I'm busy with that, we've built some self-care time into our weekly schedules, understanding the whole marathon vs a sprint idea applies very much to us right now.

So what, then does a person like me do to enjoy open time when it presents?

Dust off the spiritual tomes. Tolle, Zen study, etc., have emerged once more, and provide renewed focus and food for development.

Read for pleasure. I am a voracious reader, and am now open to rereading favorites or diving more deeply into favorite authors' repetoires.

Move my body. More regularly, in some sort of organized fashion,with an eye to slimming a bit, tightening a bit, and gaining a stronger sense of physical self at this juncture.

Embroider. Finish the pillowcases I started stitching several years ago.

Weave. Feeling the need to explore a skill I learned as a child. I love working with yarns, with colors, with texture.

Learn to just be. Not necessarily in frenetic motion, just be. This may be the biggest challenge.

Turns out I am hellaciously efficient at juggling, and I mostly suck at just....being.

Thinking about this has also pointed out to me that by relinquishing self-care (emotional, physical, spiritual) as a first response to stress or new goals...I demonstrated that those things weren't high enough on my priority list in the first place.

So it seems I have some work to do, priority setting among the tasks.

 Huge hugs, and enjoy the weekend!

 Stevie

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On Mondays. And lots of rules.

Mondays can be a challenge. There's the whole shock to the system of waking up and realizing it's not the weekend anymore, which kind of blows. And then the jolt out of the lazy flow of the weekend into the time-focused 'gotta be at the office by x time, gotta get ready for the company meeting, gotta check emails/deadlines to ensure nothing is on fire' stuff. And then the reality of settling into the week...and knowing that this one will be a full one. They all seem to be. This week for me: Work. Lots of good stuff going on, but 'lots' being the watchword. School. 2nd trimester starts. Tomorrow a.m. So tomorrow for me is school, 9-12; work 1230-430; clinic 5-9. Long day, Tuesday. For this I've washed and pressed my lab coat, cleaned out my tote (it is truly amazing what collects during a trimester in terms of used kleenexes, abandoned index cards, folded notes that were important at some point but now are just extra weight, stale snacks, etc.), and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

It might have been the moon

 The second Super Moon, also a Harvest Moon, just happened. On the same night I had my mini-meltdown. (see prior post). I've talked with several friends who reported intense emotions, mostly around stuff that needs to be released, resolved. When I think about my angst, and how intense it felt, I realize it was all about that kind of stuff. Old stuff, patterns, thinking, habits. So maybe the moon precipitated things. The bubbling up of angst and anger and icky stuff lasted all that night, but had calmed by yesterday morning. Thank gawd, because that was a morass of darkness, the likes of which I haven't experienced in at least a decade. The rest of the weekend has been pleasant. Uneventful. Full of errands, chores, a really nice walk this morning, yummy food, naps, etc. The one thing about energy that feels constant is that no mood lasts forever. Energy continually shifts and morphs, like the Universe knows too much, too long, of any one sentiment just isn't a good idea for ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The run

I have the body of a sprinter, but always ran long distance. My wind would stabilize, my muscles would synchronize, my mind would clear...at about mile 2.5 and just improve after that. For decades I ran. My high school P. E. teacher, Ms. Vidano, instilled the love of the run, and it remains to this day, long past when I should endeavor to tread the roads for miles and miles. The run sustained me after my (very early life) divorce. The run helped reconnect with a childhood friend, who had ventured far for college but returned for work, and who found me enjoying a post-work cigarette and glass of wine on my balcony one night and said, 'Oh, no, this isn't right. Put that fucking thing out. I'll be here in the morning. We're going shopping, and we're going running.' Loved that. He was right, and he was awesome, and he got me back out of a trench and into my running love zone. Then I met my now love, my man of many years, father of my children, partner in ...
Post a Comment
Read more