Have you ever felt completely overwhelmed and stuck? Like you have all this stuff you want to do, but you can’t seem to get there?
That was me two weeks ago. It kind of felt like I was drowning in my to-do list. I was feeling increasingly frantic.
So I decided to do something about it.
On August 12 I announced that I was going on a blog-holiday. Two weeks post-free to rest and dream and work on other things.
I had three goals:
1. to unplug and relax and catch my breath
2. to take care of the MANY things on my to-do list that kept getting bumped by post-writing
3. to get the kind of perspective on my blog and business that only time away can provide, and to come back with new ideas and dreams and insights
And you know what? It totally worked.
Here’s a summary:
The first weekend, we took a road trip to PEI and stayed with some friends.
Photo of giant-ass Confederation Bridge not-by-me
It was fabulous! I left my laptop at home, we drove over the bridge under a spectacular full moon, and we had a glorious day-and-a-half in the sun on the Island. We played games, we went to a beach, we ate supper at the Churchill Arms (SO GOOD), and we went for an evening walk in downtown Charlottetown. It was short, exhausting, but good (even though we didn’t get to visit everyone we wanted to).
The next week was the perfect mix of work and play. I checked about a dozen non-blog-related things off my list. I scanned some photos and paintings. I collected some quotes to tweet. I journalled. I came up with ideas for not one, but three e-books. I watched all of the new episodes of Torchwood. And that weekend, we went swimming at Dollar Lake. We drove out late Sunday afternoon, and the water was perfect.
Last week I ended up doing a bunch of website-related stuff sort of by accident. I changed the blog theme, and accidentally wiped out a bunch of my settings. Oops. But somewhere in there, while I was rebuilding my sidebar from scratch, I realized that I actually liked the change (this, I believe, is typical Mercury Retrograde stuff).
...at least this didn't happen...
Somehow that “oops” launched a whole series of blog-related techy things that I had been procrastinating on for months because I didn’t know how to do them. (I maintain that this doesn’t count as cheating because I didn’t actually engage in blogging activities…just techy ones). I’m not done with the changes yet…there are big things —including a change in URLs— coming very soon.
And then we wound things up by spending a day at a friend’s house in the country and making a bonfire at the top of a hill covered in blueberry bushes.
Rest, check.
Work, check.
I’m still working on the third goal of the vacation, the blog-and-business perspective. But I do have some insight on the vacation itself:
This vacation was all about space. Creating space for change to flow in.
I made some space in my schedule by eliminating blog-posting for 2 weeks. I cleared some space in my to-do list (and my brain) by completing nagging tasks. I changed things around, and in the process I ended up shifting massive blocks and moving forward in ways I didn’t expect. I needed to clear the space for this to happen.
And now I feel like a snowball at the top of a hill, just edging toward the slope…things are moving! I like this feeling. Now I’m wondering what else I can do to make space for change in my life…I can’t be on vacation all the time (that would sort of defeat the purpose!)
What about making some physical space?
…if you read yesterday’s Inspiration Tuesday post, you’ll notice that the Internet presented me with this post: Andrea Schroeder, in the throes of pre-moving stuff-elimination writes,
I’m doing a full-on all-out clearing.
Everything that no longer serves me – gone.
Blocks: dismantled and their components taken away to the thrift shop where someone else can build something beautiful out of them.
Obstacles: thrown into the recycling bin like they should have been long ago.
As I’m doing this with my stuff I’m also doing this with my stuff.
It’s a huge job. It’s tiring physically and it’s exhausting emotionally.
Creating space for the next stage.
More creativity. More freedom. More possibility. More flow. More space. More sparkle.
That’s starting to sound pretty damn good to me.
After all, right now it’s all about space.
Spirit Moves Dance 