Finding Ground After a Frazzling Day

I wrote this after a particularly brutal day at work. One of those big annual deadlines that always feels like carnage, except this year was especially hard.

I didn't get it all done by the end of Friday and I had to carry over the work into Monday. That's not a good feeling. But even so, I made myself close the laptop and step away because I was working slower and slower, and there's no point just staring at a screen.

I could have easily just opened a bottle of cider and started drinking a rubbish day away. Instead, I took myself and Doris the whippet out for a lovely walk, and instantly felt better being outside. I listened to a stream, the busy birds, the long grasses that look so attractive this time of year.

The more I walked, the more nature I took in, the better I felt. Watching Doris eat grass and pick out plants that she knows are good for her was a reminder about remembering what's good for us and making ourselves do it. Immersing ourselves in green and blue spaces, even when we might just want to curl up in a ball and forget about the day. So whatever that looks like for you - getting out for a walk, or a ride, or a paddle, out in the garden, a walk round the block, or even looking out of the window at the nature you can see. It's worth doing. Even when, especially when, it's the last thing you feel like doing.

The laptop will still be there tomorrow. The work can and will wait. But this feeling, this grounding that comes from choosing what's actually good for you instead of what feels easy, this makes everything more manageable.

What's your version of a walk with Doris when overwhelm hits?