A glorious break
Every athletic training program I have followed has had a formula. A few days of intense workouts a week, interspersed with a few days of easy activity, and always including a day or two of recovery. Rest and recovery are essential components of growth. Only when you rest, your muscles get a chance to repair and rebuild. Coaches and athletes know that your body needs rest to function well.
Your mind is no exception. If your work - like mine - involves intense mental work, you should be intentionally including rest periods. These rest periods should be true rest periods, periods where you step away from everything that agitates or overstimulates your mind.
Recently, I took a weeklong break from work that was intended to be such a period of rest. It was not just a week without work. It was a week without TV, social media, and even the usual places that were part of my routine. My husband and I spent evenings watching the sun set, early mornings listening to birds sing, and afternoons hiking dusty desert trails. I participated in a meditation retreat and otherwise lazed around as much as I could. I enjoyed every part of our trip: spending time in Joshua Tree National Park, a small town in Southern California called Julian, and San Diego, a city I loved as much for its wonderful food as for its spectacular beaches.
Julian is a Dark Sky Town and was our first stop on the trip. The big sky above Julian dazzled with a trillion stars, like a massive chandelier above our heads.
Late evenings and early mornings in Julian showed us what high desert chill could feel like. Nights were starlit, the sunsets and sunrises stunning. Every night, after dinner, we cocooned ourselves in layers of clothing and religiously made our way to locations as far from civilization as possible. I set up my tripod and shifted my gaze above. As more stars blinked alive on the sky, I felt connected to something much bigger than myself. Brilliantly starlit skies have a way of taking my mind off my own concerns. They make me feel in touch with the infinity of the universe. I felt grateful and fortunate to have this life and to be able to see such wondrous things.
You might think of it as “cosmic insignificance therapy”: When things all seem too much, what better solace than a reminder that they are, provided you’re willing to zoom out a bit, indistinguishable from nothing at all? The anxieties that clutter the average life—relationship troubles, status rivalries, money worries—shrink instantly down to irrelevance. So do pandemics and presidencies, for that matter: the cosmos carries on regardless, calm and imperturbable. -- Oliver Burkeman
Our second stop on the trip was Joshua Tree National Park. The park spans two desert systems - the Mojave and the Coloradan - and sports the namesake tree that is found only in that part of the world. The tree creates a gnarly, beautiful silhouette against the sky, and is home to many hardy wildlife like lizards, quails, and wrens.
Back in the city of San Diego, we were able to enjoy the glamours of the city: great food, brisk night life, and a cozy, orderly Japanese garden. San Diego has some of the pinkest sunsets I have ever seen. From the island of Coronado, the skyline of San Diego gets lit progressively in golden light, orange, pink, and inky blue of deep twilight. Such a show never gets boring no matter how many times you photograph or see it. Standing on the shore of the bay, skyscrapers reflecting on the water, dogs frolicking on the wet sands, a gentle breeze brushing your skin, your mind feels far away from any concerns that unsettled it just a week ago.
By the time we were back at the airport, ready to board our plane out of San Diego, I felt reenergized and at peace.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. —- Albert Einstein
When was the last time you gave yourself such a gift of disconnection? It may not be a trip to a new city. Perhaps it's a day or a weekend of detox. You could visit a neighborhood you have never visited before. You could pay close attention to flowers and their colors. You could walk along a beach and notice the shapes and texture of different pebbles. You could look at the sky and watch the clouds pass, and the colors shift as the day progresses. You could wake up at dawn and gaze at the reflections on the dew drops clinging to blades of grass. There is so much nature everywhere for anyone who pays attention. And paying attention to nature is a great way to unplug yourself from your daily concerns and feel connected to the glorious universality of life.