Do we all need to pause a bit more?
September is here! WOW. 2024 you are rattling past…you even numbered wonder.
September and all that goes with it to boot is a big month, especially if you are a parent. The new term, new teachers and new school year. The summer is over. Do those school shoes fit? Anticipation, excitement, nerves. Are there any matching socks anywhere in my house? Will everyone be able to go to bed at 7pm ever again?
I didn’t go to the Edinburgh fringe. Instead, my summer was dedicated to eating too much cheese and of course to my girls, road trip adventures seeing friends and making new memories, sleeping under canvas, family time and a festival finale in the fields of dreams at Shambala. It was a banger, we had a couple of blips but overall we are very lucky to have done the things we did. Thank you Summer and Sun for finally sorting it out and putting in a decent shift.
I took a planned 1 month break from doing live comedy. It was good and also enabled a state of flow. It was a pause. A needed pause. A time of reflection amongst the jolly and daily duties of still keeping children alive and well.
I am thinking more and more about how a break, a pause, or a moment of reflection feels more important to me than ever. Wow girl, its taken you a sweet 44 years to realise you are not bionic. The candle has been burnt so many times at both ends (ooh er) it is time probably.
We, us women in the midlife are all go, go, go and on, on, on. Always on.
Juggling those plates, hoping they don’t drop, they drop, we pick them up, can’t find the glue, dust ourselves off, sellotape it together, put it back in the cupboard and carry on. I am not talking in tongues, but you get what i mean right?! Its full on.
Those on social media often post daily, sometimes on several accounts. Every day the duties are still there on holiday or not if you have children. The pressures of life keep you in check also.
Work, life, kids, health, phone, double screening, money concerns, social media, societal expectations, fitness regimes, do I eat enough protein?, am I having enough sex? Has the house insurance run out? Am I in the peri-menopause? Have we run out of bin bags again, will Aswad ever make a comeback? worrying about the world and all the fucking shit that is going on in it. All this with a background lullaby of toddler screams, an 8 year old’s demands for any amazon item they can think of, WhatsApp messages and tripping over miscellaneous items in your living space. Is this sustainable, 24/7 -365 days a year? Its a lot babes.
I guess this post is thinking about the importance of the yin to go with the endless yang.
Before the break, I felt a bit disillusioned creatively. The ideas were dry, a writer’s block of sorts. I am sure this was due to spending too much time on social media, looking at other people’s content and not allowing space for my ideas.
Maybe I am oversharing here, but I wonder if you too sometimes feel “too on” in life in every way and that the off is essential to enable to the on to come back with vim and vigour.
September, I am back carefully with pauses planned whenever I need. The children are getting back into a routine. The days are heading towards the end of the year and I am choosing currently to hold off on the booze. A mini-break of sorts after a summer of being drenched in rose. I will choose when i want to have a glass, but for now i am liking the pause.
How magical that we can pause bits of our life to make us well.
Pausing with social media is something I also have been doing and it has led to better ideas and creative juices are now flowing. Hallelujah. I am sure that we are not supposed to be “on” 365 days a year. Even real life shops close for holidays and I think these digital shop windows should close also for everyones well being.
Thoughts and musings. How do you switch off? What is in your toolkit to get down time? What moments in your life has the pause enabled a rebirth or something new?
I would love to hear your thoughts on this piece.
Much Love
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Kelly