A warm comfy blanket.
The seasons are changing again. Here in Idaho, we’re in that phase where the heater goes on in the morning, the air conditioner kicks in at some point during the day, and then maybe you need a heater again at the end of the day.
The leaves are falling, and the sky gets lighter later, and darker earlier. The open skies of summer are giving way to the overcast and subdued light of fall.
It’s becoming the season of the warm, comfy blanket.
We have a funny little ritual in our house, where we officially declare the start of fall when we light the pilot light on our gas fireplace. It takes just a couple of minutes, but it signifies that another season has moved on into the past, forever remembered, but never repeated.
Once the fireplace is an option, then so are quieter nights, slower mornings and a crock pot full of soup making the house smell amazing.
All things that help us to take care of ourselves, if we make time for them.
Self care is something I’m beginning to take more seriously. In the past, I prided myself on my ability to just keep going. Finals week in grad school – 3 hours of sleep for 6 days while maintaining a 3.5 GPA.
Covering for the other Doctor in the practice who was out after surgery – 2 months of 60+ hour weeks. Back then I felt confident in my ability to survive anything.
Looking back, it was so foolish. Could I do it – yes. Was it advisable – not at all.
Here in America where I write this, the idea of self care is still slowly being adopted. The prevailing culture still seems to value success over happiness, abundance and achievement over the allowance of a life well spent chasing memories rather than money.
We’re slowly waking up to the idea that sleep is a luxury, and that our health and happiness is more important than having everything.
Which isn’t to say that you can’t do both, but that we’ve spent too long out of balance in chasing one at the expense of the other.
And science is starting to catch up with the understanding to going all out for so long is bad for us. The technology that drives our productivity is also that which robs us of the quiet time to think, to reason and to meditate.
Having a set of ear buds permanently pressed into our skull may give us 24 hours a day music, but it can also lead to zero hours of silence…
Which our brain needs to unwind and make sense of the day.
In his seminal book, ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Productive People’, the author Steven Covey teaches the principle of ‘Sharpening the Saw’, which teaches the principle that in order to perform at its best, a saw must be stopped from working in order to be sharpened and maintained.
If the saw is used constantly without a break, it becomes so blunt that it loses all efficiency.
So when do we slow down, and give ourselves permission to just be, rather than be doing something?
In my search for balance in caring for myself, I’m learning that sometimes it’s better to give myself an hour or two off rather than try to get everything done right now. Sometimes, an early night and a chance to sleep a little longer is the greatest thing I can do for myself, rather than finishing a task that doesn’t have to be done right now.
And sometimes, the greatest thing I can do for myself is to sit quietly, and do nothing at all but breathe, and be grateful for the moment within which I find myself.
And maybe wrap myself in a warm comfy blanket, and just enjoy the experience of being human.
— Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings