Aaaah… how was your weekend? Mine was unexpectedly wonderful. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, it was just one of those weekends where the perfect balance of productivity, relaxation, and time spent with friends somehow fell into place. I feel pretty proud of myself, actually! I’ve been struggling lately with the separation between work and life.
I’m certainly not complaining. I’m very thankful to be so busy and have multiple many projects at play. Nonetheless, it’s still daunting. I find that when my schedule gets this way, the things I used to enjoy, like cooking, working out, or reading a book, become chores. I dread doing them because it seems impossible to mentally separate myself from everything else in my life and truly enjoy going running or preparing dinner. I have a hard time tuning out the noise, and being present. Does that ever happen to you?
I sort of stumbled on a solution to my problem. Being a avid follower of Joy the Baker, I started exploring her other online work- Homefries. Have you guys heard of Homefries? It’s a collection of podcasts (and other cool stuff) curated by Joy the Baker, and some amazing other bloggers/people. There are multiple podcasts to choose from, but I’m totally hooked on the Joy the Baker Podcast and We’re About to be Friends. Ok, I’ve also listened to a fair amount of the Simple Mom Podcasts (I’m preparing!).
I didn’t realize it initially, but I became so into these podcasts, I found myself making time to listen to them. I had no problem shutting off work at the end of the day and starting dinner, because it meant I could listen to the newest podcast! Same thing went for getting my butt out the door for a lunch time run. For some reason, listening to podcasts allows me to completely tune out all the thoughts running through my head and truly take a break. I like the Homefries ones especially, because it feels like two close friends chatting next to me, except I just get to listen and take it all in, instead of engage.
Do you listen to podcasts? Do you find them relaxing? How do you disconnect and tune out the noise?
Ps: And if you have podcasts to recommend, please send them my way!
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I, too, love running while listening to podcasts for that exact same reason. When the podcast is good, it forces you to tune out everything else, physical exertion included. My most favorite one is RadioLab (www.radiolab.org). Their episodes are so good that I listen to most of them multiple times. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I listened to the “Afterlife” episode over 10 times. Hope you enjoy it!
Ooo, I’ll have to try it! Thanks so much for the recommendation, Regina!
I totally listened to that podcast too! And I realized how difficult it can be to “unplug” and relax, but it’s definitely something we need to do more often. Glad to hear that you had a balanced weekend. Cheers to the week ahead!
I love them, Tracy and Joy are the best! Glad you share my sentiment
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