Recharging Your Batteries

The question I’ll never ask another woman is, “How do you balance it all?” This question has always irked me. As women, it’s almost sewn into our DNA to juggle many things at once.  

Instead, I wonder, “How do you recharge?” My interest and my concern is, in the midst of the juggling act we all do as automatic as breathing, how are we caring for ourselves? 

What are we doing (or not doing) to recharge our batteries?

Last week I woke up at 6am, off to the hospital for a (scheduled) stress test. For 15 minutes I had wires coming off of my chest and into a little black box strapped to my waist as the treadmill steadily increased in speed and incline. As a healthy eating, daily exercising, often laughing, spiritually in-tune person, I had a major ‘how did I get here’ moment there in Room 106. 

Stress tests and blood work were preceded by far too much work for far too long and little-to-no time for R&R. Yet, the kicker? I actually thought I was doing a pretty great job of self-care, even treating myself to a day at the museum once a month and a hotel getaway once a quarter. 

But spending an afternoon in front of an Andrew Wyeth painting while my mind swirled with to-do lists, proposal deadlines and ruminating over the fires to put out on Monday morning wasn’t really recharging. It was working at a different address for the day.

And my quarterly, solo weekend getaways to de-stress with marathon Kardashian episodes and long bubble baths at a hotel really just became two quiet nights to….work. To write. To catch up on my inbox, to map future goals, to skim business books and to set my call schedule for the weeks ahead. Sure, I came back more organized and on-top of things than when I left. But I hadn’t done what I set out to do.

How do you play? What makes you laugh till your belly hurts? What gives you energy? What lifts your spirits and gives you a spring in your step? What brings about proper perspective and reminds you of who you are, without the workplace titles? 

In essence, where do you find you again.