The (Difficult) Art of Relaxation

Brian and I went away this weekend - actually, the place where we went is only about 3 miles from our house, but whenever we're there it feels like we're in another state.

The place we stayed at is called Moondance B&B, and it's right in Fond du Lac.  Our friend Sue owns it - it's actually a one-bedroom house on her property.  What's great about Moondance (besides the gorgeous decor and the view!) is that guests are left to their own devices - there's a full kitchen and it's stocked with whatever is requested.  For us, that meant Thomas English muffins.  :D  Sue always leaves little treats, too - this time we were greeted by a plate of muffins and a mni pie from the Little Farmer, an orchard/farm that makes incredible pies, muffins and other fall treats.  This was our second time staying at Moondance - the first time was in January, for our 4th wedding anniversary.  It was wonderfully relaxing, when I was able to relax.

Which brings me to the actual post - why is it so hard to relax and do nothing?  Is this weird?  Do any of you reading this have a similar problem?

It always baffles me when people tell me that they went to some wonderful all-inclusive resort somewhere and did nothing but lay by the pool and drink margaritas - I'm a little envious, too.  I would have a hard time doing that.  I can handle the pool for about an hour and then I have to do something else.  If I have a book along I may be able to eek out another hour, but it would have to be an engaging book.  No, I would much rather be exploring what the city has to offer (museums, attractions, etc.) and learning something.

In my "normal" life, during the week, I'm always busy.  If I'm not writing in my blog or updating the many facebook pages I administer, I'm in the studio or visiting friends or attending meetings in between running errands and cooking dinner. But you'll never catch me just reading, and the TV is never on during the day.  To me, that would be "cheating".  I feel like I have to be productive all the time.

I wonder where this notion came from - kids certainly don't feel this way!  As an adult I've felt like this since I can remember, but I think it got worse when I quit my 9-5 job in January.  Now that my job consists of me being creative, I'll admit that I feel a little guilty about having so much fun and getting paid for it.  It still blows my mind that I get to do what I love for a living.  Maybe I'm worried that if I fully relax on the weekends, people will either think I'm a spoiled princess or a total slacker, either of which would be upsetting.

I was sick a couple of weeks ago and spent two days in bed.  I did nothing, and I was okay with it, but I didn't feel well.  Maybe that's why we get sick - it's our body's way of telling us that we can slow down and the universe won't stop spinning if we're not a part of it for a couple days.  Now if I could only do that when I'm feeling good, I'd be all set.  :D

Playing Hooky

I have the day off today. What am I doing with it? Well, so far, not much. I've made a couple of galleries on Flickr, and am currently writing this blog entry but other than that, zilch. And that's okay. I might just stay in my jammies all day!

This year has been interesting as far as my vacation and personal days, because in the beginning of the year Gannett announced we would have two weeks of furloughs as well. So all in all I will have about six weeks of time off for 2009. I say, bring on the furloughs for 2010!!

That may seem like a lot but in the grand scheme of things the US is SO far behind other developed nations. For example, in Finland, the average is 30 paid vacation days and 14 national holidays. That's 44 days, or NINE WEEKS off per year. I would've thought Canada would have more than we do but they actually average about a week less.

Now, I was in the fortunate position financially of not having to worry about those 2 furlough weeks we had in the first half of the year. And let me tell you, I enjoyed every minute of them. The first week I took individual Wednesdays off (like today). It was luxurious! I would hang out downtown, spend the day with my Grammie in Green Bay, schedule hair/dentist/doctor appointments without having to rush around before or after work - it was wonderful! The second week was spent on a fabulous vacation to Denver. During furloughs we were forbidden to contact work in any way, so it was the perfect time to get away!

My whole life, even when I was much poorer than I am now, I've always favored time over money. Some people would view this as lazy and in this country, a strong work ethic is very important. It should be. When you're at work, you should work as hard as you can; you're getting paid to do so. The problem with that work ethic, however, is that it's becoming harder to separate our work from our LIFE. To me, work is not life and I don't see that changing. I hate having to think about work when I'm not there. I have many friends, though, who seem to think it's normal to be 'on call' 24-7. Their whole life revolves around work - their friends, their schedules, their entertainment, everything. That's too bad. What happens if that job isn't there next year? But I digress. Back to vacations.

If we had more vacation time, wouldn't we all be less stressed? And in turn, wouldn't we all be better workers? And wouldn't our home life be more rewarding? Wouldn't it be nice to have more time for personal enrichment instead of plunking ourselves in front of the TV because we're too exhausted to even think about doing anything else? Sorry to get on my high horse, but I think that a happy worker is a good worker. Corporations need to start showing their personnel (what few there are remaining) some love. Because when this recession is over, and there are more job opportunities, people are going to leave in droves for greener pastures. Time to stop thinking only about your shareholders, Giant Companies, and start sharing the wealth with the workers who got you where you are in the first place. Or, months or years down the road, that little start-up you laughed at will replace you and you'll be left with nothing.