Very often, we associate the summer with holidays, and holidays with resting. But have you ever experienced it not being like that, or rather, the opposite happening?
Yo estas semanas me estoy dando cuenta de que ahora en verano no tengo menos cosas que hacer; de hecho, tengo más, Y cuando nos vayamos de vacaciones, que todavía faltan un par de semanas, también tendremos bastante ajetreo, como pasa a menudo con los viajes. Hasta el punto de que, al volver, me veo diciendo lo de aquel chiste de Mafalda, que necesito unas vacaciones para descansar de las vacaciones…
I´m not sure whether I´ve mentioned this in the blog or not, but I feel like I´ve been waiting to get peace and quiet for months, maybe even years, and the peace and quiet are not arriving.
And now I know that they´re not going to appear as if by magic.
Because peace and quiet don´t just materialise one day. You have to attract them. Create them. And above all, you have to leave space for them in your calendar.
(Picture of the sea, which is luckily just about a forty-minute drive away from my house, affording me the luxury of visiting every now and then without having to be on holidays.)
Sí que es verdad que ahora en estos meses, con el buen tiempo (y esta semana en Irlanda hemos tenido un tiempo excepcional), es un poco más fácil bajar el ritmo, aunque sólo sea porque con el calor no nos queda más remedio… Summer is a terrific opportunity for us to dedicate time and attention to an activity that´s fundamental for human beings: RESTING..
Resting physically and mentally. Recovering your strength. Recharging your batteries.
But what if we still have work to do? Well, on the one hand, we can rethink where each task falls within the scales of urgency and importance, to see if we can lighten the load a little bit (I´m sure the answer is yes).
On the other hand, as far as possible, we can adopt a more relaxed attitude, closer to "holiday mode", alleviating any unnecessary pressure and starting to move towards a more sustainable rythm..
Speaking of this, here´s a quote by Gregorio Marañón that I found really interesting:
Working without hurry is the greatest rest for an organism.
That is, it´s not about doing absolutely nothing (at least, not all the time), but about performing our tasks more calmly, without stress. Because, as John Steinbeck said:
The art of resting is part of the art of working.
And this last one, I´m not sure who said it (the quote is everywhere, but the author is not clear):
Sometimes, the most productive thing you can do is rest.
How about you? How are you resting this summer?