Advice for a Busy Season
It is the height of summer here in Vermont. The raspberries are ripe, the garden is growing tall, the apples are starting to blush red on the trees. It feels like the world is a hive of activity: campers cruising the highways, children splashing in the river, BBQs smoking in backyards. There are vacations to enjoy, parties to attend, and birthdays to celebrate (mine is next week!)
Roses I adore in golden hour.
All of this action can feel like A LOT. There is something frantic about July which is both beautiful and absolutely exhausting at the same time. I want to revel in every moment of it, soak up the sun from dawn to dusk, and do all the things! Yet, somehow there is never enough time, the days seem to slip past. In the blink of an eye, the glory of full summer comes and then goes. The shorter days and back to school of August feel like they loom already.
It’s poignant and it’s grueling. I look forward to it and I can’t handle it. I want more, more, more, and I’m totally spent.
We all have seasons in our lives like this. Perhaps yours is a different time of year. For many people it’s the brilliance and collapse of the end of the year holiday season. It doesn’t really matter when it is, we all know the bittersweet feeling of it.
I’ve been trying to come up with some ways to soothe the season and make it more on the enjoyable end and less on the overtired scale. I’ve come up with a few things I am going to try out and I thought I’d share them with you. So, here are my three tips for navigating a busy season!
#1 Stick to Your Self Care Routines
I like to get up each morning, make a cup of coffee, and do my morning routine. This consists of writing morning pages, doing a 10 minute meditation, drawing tarot cards for the day, and posting them on Instagram. This takes me about an hour and then I’m ready to start the day.
I love this routine. It makes it easy for me to get out of bed in the morning because I’m going to do something I enjoy and it helps me feel calm and centered right at the beginning of the day. I’m not too dogmatic about it; it rarely happens on Sundays and if I miss a day, I don’t beat myself up about it. I’ve been doing it for so long that I know when it can be skipped and when it’s a necessity. It happens most days and that keeps me grounded.
Do you have grounding and centering routines that you do each day? It doesn’t have to be in the morning, but it should be routine. Maybe you have an after dinner routine or a before bed routine. Whatever it is, stick to it, even during your busy season. This keeps you centered, of course, but it also subtly reminds you that you are caring for yourself on a deep level even when things are hectic.
If you don’t have a self-care routine, try to incorporate something really small into your day now. Some really easy ones are: taking three deep breathes, drinking a mindful glass of water when you wake up, writing down three things you’re grateful for before going to bed, or pulling yourself a daily tarot card. Really, the opportunities for a little self-care are endless and do make a difference.
#2 Focus On What You Are Doing, Not What You’re Not Doing
When things get busy, it’s easy to get caught up in the movement from thing to thing. You can end up paying more attention to the schedule and less to the activities themselves. During your busy season, make it a conscious priority to stay present and notice what is happening.
The cherry tree is going nuts!
You may be tempted to think about what you’re going to make for that potluck while you’re at that kid’s pool party, but try not to do that. Instead, be in the moment at the party. Notice how much fun your kid is having, interact with the other parents, soak up the sunshine. You can think about the potluck preparation while you’re actually making the dish.
That’s the thing about being busy, we forget that we can’t do the things we’re not doing when we’re not doing them. If you can’t get that work email written during the family BBQ, don’t compose the thing in your head! Don’t think about it at all! It’s going to take you out of enjoying the time with your family and make you tense about something that you can’t do anything about at the moment.
If you can’t do anything about it at the moment, don’t think it about it in the moment. Worrying about the future and things you need to get done later is not productive. Unless there is a concrete task you can do about that plan right now, don’t let it drag you into the future.
Being present in what you are doing, especially when it is stuff that you made the effort to plan because you enjoy it and want it to be included in your busy season, is essential. Otherwise, why did you go through the effort of making this plan and doing this thing? If you’ve been looking forward to a beach day since January, don’t spend your beach day thinking about work, or god forbid, actually working. Spend that day enjoying the fucking beach!!!
#3 Remember That Balance Doesn’t Happen Every Day
It’s perfectly fine to have a busy season and not rest very much. You don’t have to live a balanced life on a day-to-day basis. You can let balance happen over a much longer time frame. As long as you keep in mind that you do need to rest and have a down period at some point, you can totally go hard for a while when it matters to you. It may feel overstimulating and frantic, but maybe it also feels wild and ecstatic and indulgent. You’re allowed to have peak experiences and worry about the consequences of balance later. Have fun!
Of course, you do still need to rest on a daily basis. Try to keep your sleep routine regular for sure. You can eliminate other “rest” activities that you might normally indulge in each day such as watching TV, scrolling through social media, or reading all those email newsletters (wait, what?!). Those TV shows will wait in your queue until winter or a rainy day or when you finally crash and burn and are glued to the couch for a week.
It’s important to remember not to feel bad when the crash does come. You deserve rest! Never shame yourself for needing to rest, even if that time-out comes during your busy season. You are doing your best and there is no need to feel guilty about how much energy you do or do not have on any given day. Think of it as returning to balance, achieving homeostasis, or evening out the scales. You’re not going to feel bad about having a ton of fun and equally, you’re not going to feel bad about sleeping for an entire weekend to balance that out.
Ok ya’ll I know I said 3 tips for dealing with a busy season, but I’ve got one bonus tip I thought of while I was writing this. So, don’t you feel lucky for all this sage wisdom? ;)
Bonus #4 Have Ways to Release the Stress
I know we’re talking about having fun and a busy season full of good times, but stress is stress and your body doesn’t care if it comes from fun busy or not fun busy. So, you need to have ways to release that stress. You’ve gotta shake it off! Actually, shaking is a great way to release stress, it’s what animals do and aren’t we animals ourselves? Of course! You can shake through a fun yoga practice, or a dance party, or just shaking your body vigorously.
Am I screaming into the void here?
Other movement activities that relieve stress are: sprinting or running, jumping on a trampoline or jumping rope, having sex, Zumba or other aerobics type exercise, kickboxing, martial arts, and biking uphill. Get your body moving! Pretend you’re running for your life!
Then there is always the good old stress relief of screaming and yelling. Maybe you have a friend you can scream with or maybe you want to direct it into a pillow so the neighbors don’t freak out, that’s up to you. Releasing stress through a good angry roar is definitely effective.
Stress relief can also come in more gentle forms. Meditation or breathe work can be effective. Sitting with your beloved pet and stroking their fur or listening to their breath can be very calming. My favorite is crying! I love to have a good long cry, even when I’m happy. The tension of enjoyment can build up and need to be released through tears sometimes.
Whatever form your bodily release comes in, remember to practice it regularly during your busy season. It will help you feel more centered and energized.
Okay, that is all for now. I hope you all have the best July possible, whether it is your busy season or not. These tips will come in handy for when your busy season comes around. Let me know if any of these tricks work for you or if you have ones you would like to suggest for me!
And as always, a tarot reading can be helpful for navigating any season of your life that is troubling you. Get in touch for a reading anytime! I look forward to connecting with you.