Taking a loooonnnggg weekend

When lockdown started on Friday I figured that I would take a much-needed long weekend with Friday, Saturday and Sunday being completely work-free and guilt-free (because I can't do anything about this situation) days to do a lot of nothing.

I spent hours in the garden weeding and listening to an audio book. I napped. I read. I crocheted. I watched Netflix at night (currently watching the doccie series Pandemic and the Finnish detective series Bordertown). Rusty and I are doing some dog training too. She is as bright as a button.

I also kept an eye on the coronavirus status and read loads of news articles on the virus around the world. The latter is a complete time gobbler! And then there is Facebook, messaging friends on whatsapp and general catching up. Boom - the hours disappear!

And then Sunday merged into Monday... and then Monday into Tuesday and we're now on Wednesday afternoon and I haven't done much work at all.

I have so very much needed the rest.

I'd like to say I'm looking better for it but I still have dark rings under my eyes and I feel dead tired.

You know how it is when you're 60 hours into a race with little to no sleep and you're awake and focused and navigating and making decisions. And then you finish and sit down and you fall asleep on the spot. I've been in an endurance race for a few years and now that I've climbed off the treadmill, I'm literally just lying there on the floor, unable to move.

Early on, I had aspirations for lockdown with a list of things that I'd like to do with the expanse of time - like an online course or two - in addition to my work project. I have subsequently taken all pressure off myself and will just aim to complete my work project because once the wheels of life start turning, I won't have time  to do it.

After waking up, I have been spending an hour or two - or more! - reading, mostly coronavirus articles. Now that I'm giving this up in my new 'recovery phase', my general aim is to be out of bed by 9am. Then, to spend at least half of the day on image editing and the rest of the time with reading, napping, dog training, gardening and the like. I also do an hour of exercise whether a circuit session or yoga (or a bit of both).

This time is to be treasured and used. But not all of it has to be productive. In an athletic training programme, rest is part of training. For me, lockdown is an opportunity to rest, scale back my activities, reduce pressure, compartmentalise stresses and to just be.