This week has been a bit different from my normal weeks. I realize it’s only Monday, but stick with me – normally my weeks are planned out to a T. I leave for work at 6:30am work, take a lunch break to go to the gym to workout or train someone, leave work and go teach or go to a class (usually the former, though). It leaves very little room for anything but those things, which is totally fine because I LOVE my side gig of teaching fitness and training, but sometimes it’s nice to have an unexpected night off.

I’m graced with TWO unexpected nights off this week, and although I’m totally bummed about it because I absolutely love teaching my Seaport Sweat classes (and I haven’t been able to kick off my classes yet because this is the first full week!), with upcoming travel again this weekend, extra nights off mean I can get more sh*t done throughout the week and make things a little easier on myself.

That said, last night I took advantage of my unexpected night off by going to get a manicure and pedicure since I’m going away this weekend. As I was getting my pedicure, one of the nail technicians came over to start taking off my shellac from 2 weeks ago. If you’re not familiar with this process, it requires you to let your nails soak with acetone with aluminum foil wrapped around it to hold it there. In other words, you can’t do anything with your hands during this time. Normally when I get a pedicure I’m on my phone, reading a magazine or reading a book. The guy laughed at me as I tried to read a magazine and then move my phone and said  “Why don’t you just sit there & relax with nothing?”

You mean, sit there with nothing to occupy myself? To sit there completely still, relaxed and focused on just that, rather than the never ending social media posts to catch up on, tv to watch and trashy magazines to read? What a concept!

I’ll be honest when I say it was a little hard at first. I think others will agree that we are all so accustomed to doing something at all times… and oftentimes it’s multiple things at once. We are scrolling through our phones while out to eat, while chatting with our friends/spouse/etc., while watching tv, maybe even in the midst of reading a magazine. And if we aren’t multi-tasking with our phone, we might be occupied by watching tv or reading a book.

How often do we sit and do absolutely nothing besides be present and enjoy that stillness? I don’t do it nearly enough and last night was a good reminder of that. As I sit here, I’m chuckling realizing that I’m doing the exact opposite of that- I’m blogging, deciding on new couch options with RM and watching TV!

Just a little food for thought on this dreary Tuesday. I challenge you to think about how you’re spending your time- do you constantly move from one thing to the next, often multi-tasting, rarely just sitting in the moment and embracing that? If you can relate, I would suggest taking some time each day to just be. To focus on one thing. To take some deep breaths. To not have every minute planned out and accounted for. 

Oh, and don’t forget to mark your calendars for Seaport Sweat next week- Monday at 6pm and Tuesday at 6:30pm!