Have you tried turning it off and on again?
Good morning friend,
apologies for flaking last week! The reason I did not send out a newsletter was that I urgently had to unplug for a bit. So I left the city straight after work on Friday and spent 48 hours sleeping in a tree by the sea, without cell phone reception or electricity; with friends but without any other people.
Before we left, I decided that I was not going to do a late night newsletter shift on Sunday or care about any of my regular chores. Instead, I wanted to max out my time by the seaside. Essentially, I allowed myself to give exactly zero fucks about anything for one entire weekend. It was pure bliss and a hard reset for my monkey mind.
Being well aware that I cannot live in a tree tent every single weekend, I very much enjoyed this WSJ article on how to turn weekends into mini-vacations without leaving town. The key to returning to work on Monday happy and refreshed sounds simple: Pretend your weekend is a vacation. No, that does not mean you should drop all of your chores. It's rather a nudge towards seeking out activities that get you out of your routine. That's all. A team of happiness researchers at UCLA has actual data to back this up. Their recent study concluded:
"Simply by adopting a vacation mindset, people became more attentive to the present moment, thereby extracting greater happiness from this time off.”
In the Guardian, Lauren Bravo recently applied a very similar concept to maintaining friendships: Great friendships are not forged in the big life events, she argues, but rather in the seemingly small moments (think hungover brunch, "after work tonight?" texts and let's-stay-in-sleepovers). In those moments we have the most meaningful conversations, create new in-jokes and, quite simply, share our lives. I wanted to quote the entire article because I love every paragraph, but I think this bit sums it up nicely:
"It’s easy to feel affection for everyone in the dazzle of a Big Life Moment, or the warmth of its afterglow. But it’s on the ordinary days, the rainy days and Mondays, that you find your true ride-or-dies."
And because my seaside weekend was followed by a crazy 60-hour-week at the office, I just re-read this excellent Anti-Hustle-Culture piece by Niklas Göke. The headline is already a winner ("If LeBron James needs rest and recovery, you probably do too") and the article itself is also brilliant: It mixes critical analysis of modern day work culture with helpful tipps on how to put the recover in rest & recover (because the best kind of rest is active).
It also taught me how to rest within stressful situations – and to not put recovery off until after work or the weekend. Here's something to print out and hang on your office wall (and then go for a walk around the block):
"Taking breaks and having fun are as valuable to the creative or intellectual worker as sleep and nutrition are to the world-class athlete."
🙏 Speaking of rest and recover, I would like to share the one Youtube video with you, which got me through this madhouse week. I have been rolling out my mat to do "Yoga with Adriene" more or less regularly for the past six years. One of the reasons I love her so much is that she has a practice for every physical or mental need I might have. PMS? Tight shoulders? Sore legs? Feeling blue? Adriene's got my (and four million others') back.
The video that I played on repeat last week is called "Yoga for Tension Relief" : 28 wonderful minutes of release, solace and a warm, soothing voice reminding you that "everything is cyclical". It's the perfect Monday night treat.
Alrighty then, have a lovely, relaxed week! And feel free to forward this newsletter to everyone who needs a little reminder to take a break 😎
Anna
🇩🇪 PS: Ich war im August das erste Mal als Pro-Bono-Amor für Im Gegenteil (eines meiner liebsten deutschsprachigen Online-Magazine) unterwegs und habe die wundervolle Marleen porträtieren dürfen. Wenn ihr Hamburger Singles kennt, die auch gerne vorgestellt werden möchten oder ihr vielleicht selbst Lust auf ein Porträt habt (gibt schicke Fotos von Spitzenfotografin Susi dazu), dann meldet euch gerne bei mir!