Axiom: you need two weeks holiday to unwind properly
The only people likely to challenge this are those who haven’t experienced it. For me the progress toward deep regeneration can be illustrated by the following well-worn sequence (in my life).
- Turn phone to silent so I don't hear it.
- Stop carrying it.
- Checking for messages only a couple of times a day.
- Not caring whether there are messages or not.
You’d think understanding this sequence would allow you to move through it more quickly, the reality for me is that it always takes a week and half to properly relax.
Over the last couple of days I feel myself:
- Walking more slowly.
- Not filling time with activity (even if that activity is ‘go for walk on beach’), rather basking in timelessness without expectations.
- Asking myself unhurried questions about life and what it means to live more fully.
The crystal clear waters off Cape Byron and in the bay have not pulsed with swell this last week, but that has invited alternative water play … snorkelling on top of reefs at high tide and being blown away by the wild sealife, and paddling my kayak through the glassy water, the sand ripples and rocks many metres below as visible as if they were just below the surface.
And yesterday, while out with some friends less than a kilometre from shore, we were visited by a pod of playful humpback whales. We overuse the word, but the 10-15 minutes we sat there were jaw dropping awesome.
Sometimes we make our own luck.
Most time we travel or take holidays it is ‘good’. But a two week break where we have time to ‘be’ without activity repays us many times over. There is surprising value in nothingness.