put a bit of oomph back in my life

I’m well and truly out of the slump I was in when I adopted it.

I’ve had an awesome weekend. It all started with an unexpected phone call just as I was finishing work Friday evening, from a friend I hadn’t seen in a couple months. She’d found herself just around the corner from my office and suggested we go for a drink. We had a couple in a local pub, then repaired to a lovely little Spanish place for delicious tapas, jugs of sangria, and a duel to the death at Connect-4 – the shelf of kids’ games was right beside us and we decided to channel our inner six-year-olds for a while. We tried our hand at chinese checkers too, but since half the pieces were missing and neither of us had a clue about the rules, the game rapidly dissolved into helpless giggles :o) We rounded off our evening with ridiculously expensive and wonderfully self-indulgent cocktails at a hotel bar.

It was exactly the kind of evening I needed – friendly, frivolous and fun. I woke up on Saturday morning in such a good mood that nothing seemed impossible. I cleaned, laundered, grocery shopped, and even got a little creativity in by making a pretty gauze curtain for my bathroom. I slept incredibly well that night, woke up feeling fantastic again, and got a few more things done around the house on Sunday. I even felt like eating healthily, and drank lots of herbal tea – and I didn’t eat the chocolate icecream in my freezer just because it was there, which I would certainly have done this time last week. I thought about it and then decided I didn’t actually want it. (And it’s still there for sometime when I really do want it. :o) ) Sunday evening I spent a delightful few hours curled up with my book, and then, feeling the need for some activity, I went out for a short run. Even the weather was conspiring to make me feel good – a lovely sunny evening, a light rain shower with the most glorious triple rainbow, and an enormous moon right outside my window. A luxurious, pampering shower and an early night finished off the most fulfilling weekend I’ve had in a very long time.

It felt so wonderful to be taking proper care of my body and my home again. I really hope this is the turning point that marks the end of the slump I’ve been in the last while. I felt great again this morning, and while I’m struggling a little to maintain my momentum through a long and boring workday, I’m looking forward to working on the house a little more this evening, maybe even going for another run. It all gets better from here, right? :o)

I seem to have slid, as I periodically do, into total laziness. I’m doing a lot of reading and movie-watching and very little else. (Yes, I’ve been ill, but this was already a problem before that, and being ill just gave me the perfect excuse.) Down-time is perfectly fine in moderation, of course, but I’ve let it become a default and I’m feeling the effects – the laundry is piling up to a ridiculous extent, the ever-lurking few pounds have reappeared on my waistline, the kitchen has slid into chaos and needs a thorough scrub so I can get back into cooking properly, there’s several small things I’m supposed to do for other people that aren’t done, and I’m feeling a vague discontent that I suspect is to do with the total absence of creative outlets. And of course, too much down-time is as energy-sapping as too much activity, so it starts to feel like getting anything at all done is an enormous task.

However, I’ve been here before and I know perfectly well that once I get going again I’ll be fine – it’s just the starting that’s difficult. (I have a fridge magnet that says “I’d be unstoppable if I could just get started” – that’s me in a nutshell :-p ) I also know that if I try to bully myself into doing everything at once I won’t do anything, so the idea of this goal is to re-introduce some productive activity bit by bit, and try to trick myself back on track without my noticing. (I’m typing this with my eyes closed so I don’t give myself away :o) )

• At least one load of laundry. Maybe two.
• Make a start on the kitchen. Wash a load of dishes, take out the recycling, clean the damn coffee-pot before it develops civilisation…
• Exercise at least once. Go for a run, do some yoga, get out the twist board, whatever I feel like at the time as long as it gets me moving.
• Fulfil my obligations to others. Send that package to E., and get the travelling journal in the mail.

If I can get just that much done by Friday I’ll count this week a success. I really only have two evenings to do it, tonight and Thursday, cos I’ve a family dinner on Wednesday and an office party on Friday, but it’s a very small amount to ask of myself as long as I can overcome the inertia. Once I have that little spark of energy rekindled I can use it to set light to bigger things.