How do you unwind after a productive work week? Do you have a wellness routine? I personally never really had one and never quite felt like I needed it up until recently. Exercising has been my way of taking care of myself both physically and mentally and it’s always been sufficient up until last week. I run on high energy all the time and am actually quite content with working non stop. After all, I genuinely love what I do. However, I don’t recall ever working as hard as I have since coming back from the end of year vacations. I don’t remember ever being as laser-like focused on my work as I have been since January 6, to the point where pretty much everything else in my life has taken a backseat. Okay, I hear you thinking… “Even working out??”. And the answer is yes, well, kind of. Instead of my usual 5 morning cardio sessions from home and 5 afternoon workouts (that include 3 gym sessions, 1 Barre Fitness session and 1 session from home), I did 2 morning cardio sessions, but maintained my 5 afternoon workouts except that I trained from home three days out of five to save time and be able to work longer. The thought and feeling that my work had taken too much space in my life had been slowly building up for the past two weeks and last Friday, I decided to do something about it. I know that habits are built fast and I didn’t want to take the habit of investing almost 100% of my time, energy and attention on my work. Although I love what I do, there is more to life than building a career and, professional “success” is only part of what a human needs to be happy. So my plan last Friday was to get myself to the gym (even though I would have preferred to workout from home to save time and get more work done) and while at the gym, be 100% present, be fully focused on how great taking care of my body and health felt, how fantastic knowing that I do all I have to be my BEST self felt, not thinking about anything else than every rep of every set of every exercise… and enjoy the feeling of my quads burning to the point where I felt like I would drop the weight. Being fully, utterly and completely present. Walking home from the gym is always something I rejoice in, even in the wintertime. I don’t care about the cold. My body’s temperature is usually so high from working out that I barely feel the freezing weather, I actually enjoy every step of this walk. When I got home that day, I lit candles, ran a warm bath, poured coconut-scented bath salt in the tub, turned off the bathroom lights and stayed there for an hour, in silence. I turned my mind off and closed my eyes, knowing that only in moments like these, only in this meditation-like state do answers and ideas arise. Then I cooked and… worked until 2am! But this time it was different. I had poured all the time, attention and energy I needed to recharge my batteries. I felt full again and worked non stop until 2 am.
I fully intend on implementing a Wellness day in my weekly schedule from now on. A day where I am alone, and I can reflect, get in this meditation-like state all day or half a day and recharge: the activities of this day could include going to the spa, visiting an exhibition, attending a dance show, trying a new (physical?) activity, start drawing/painting again, etc. I will share more of this routine as I start living it more and more in the coming weeks. I have already explained to you how my life took a pivotal change last August and since then, I have made it a point to do all the things that I love doing and that I believed would make me happy. Getting into all the activities I had dreamed of trying was my definition of wellness then and it worked wonders: I tried so many new physical activities, attended many brands events, and made an effort to be more social, although I quickly realized I was a very happy loner and I would rather spend my time working, creating and doing something meaningful that could have a great positive impact on others, than being social just for the sake of it. All of this to say that life evolves constantly, don’t hesitate to change your habits/routines with it if it can bring you more self-satisfaction, go with the flow as they say and constantly ask yourself: How do I feel? Am I 100% happy? If so, keep doing what you’re doing. If the answer is no, then try to identify why you’re not feeling your best and take immediate action to change it. If you haven’t already downloaded my FREE Happiness & Productivity Planner. I share so many tips to reach your highest potential, stay on track with all your life goals, feel 100% confident with you are, be your truest, most authentic self. It is the planner I would have dreamed to have when I started my personal development journey. Enter your email below and instantly receive your planner straight to your inbox if interested.
On that note, I am headed to the gym for a killer leg workout! Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!
With love,
K.
