“Then followed that beautiful season… Summer… Filled the sky with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape lay as if newly created in the freshness of childhood.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.”
Sydney J. Harris
Summer is here.
And for many of us it is a time of holidays, a time of time off from school or a quiet time at work or in your business.
So it’s a good time to focus on taking extra good stuff take care of yourself to relax, decompress and recharge.
And that’s exactly what this week’s article is about. Let me share six of my favorite tips that I will be using this summer.
1. Just watch the clouds go by.
During the months of continuous intense work, it can be easy to get caught up in the idea that you almost always have to do something.
This can cause a lot of tension and stress.
So try doing nothing at all this summer.
Just go for a walk in the woods. Sit by the lake and enjoy the beautiful scenery.
Or lie in the grass and watch the clouds pass by.
Do that alone, enjoy the moments of summer and feel how the inner tensions flow out of your body and mind.
2. Disconnect for a while.
I will be disconnected for much of this summer. I don’t go online unless it’s necessary.
I only check my emails once a day. And I leave my smartphone at home while I enjoy a book in the sun.
I recommend trying this one out, especially if you tend to spend a lot of time at work or school being online or on the phone.
Start by staying away from your email and phone for maybe 6 or 12 hours. Then check them.
Maybe you see that you haven’t missed much because you are not always available.
And discover that your stress level has dropped considerably and it feels easier to fully concentrate on your family, friends or your hobby.
3. Appreciate what you did between New Year’s Eve and the beginning of this summer.
Half of 2024 has now passed.
And maybe there were concerns.
Maybe you were angry with yourself more than a few times during these six months. Or disappointed in what you did, didn’t do or what happened in your life.
When there is a lot of stress and inner tension, it can be easy to get stuck focusing on what went wrong or on your own setbacks or mistakes.
So take a break from that.
Ask yourself: What can I appreciate about what I have done and accomplished during these six months?
They don’t always have to be big things. And make sure you appreciate what you did and the effort you put into it, even if things didn’t go exactly to plan.
4. Go slow.
This will also reduce your stress.
And perhaps most importantly, helping you be in the moment and fully enjoy all the sights, sounds, smells and people of your summer.
Instead of being half lost in the future or in a memory while life and perhaps something truly wonderful is happening right in front of you.
5. Say no to summer.
There are sneaky things in life. They can make a vacation filled with things you “just have to do before summer is over” seem like exhausting work.
And they will leave you more tired than you were before your time off even started.
Avoid them by asking yourself:
Will this still matter in 5 years? Or even 5 weeks?
Zooming out in this way makes it easier to find a healthier perspective on things and see the real value of doing something.
It makes it easier to simply relax and say no to something because you realize that it honestly isn’t that important anyway.
6. Spend more time doing what you love.
Maybe it’s fishing. Or go into the forest and pick berries, flowers and mushrooms. Or painting. Or read books.
Or play with your kids or hang out with an old friend.
Whatever it may be, think about how you can do more of what you love, not just this summer, but for the rest of 2024.
Take a few minutes and sit down with a pen and a piece of paper. Think about what you spend your time on during a typical week.
Then, during your regular weeks, find 1-2 things that you can spend less time on.
Or things you can simply say no to, so that you have more time and energy every week in the summer, autumn and winter for what you like to do.