Quick programming note: we’re taking this show to Saturdays. I hope you’ll come along. On to this week’s list:
My husband called me a one way ratchet the other day. Fair enough. Wake up to infant cries 25 minutes before my alarm is due to go off: crank the ratchet. Drive one more hour and a half commute: tighten it down. Eight hours of software development in an office of cubicles, harsh overhead light, and no windows: crank, tighten, tighten.
So this week we’re making a list of things that release the ratchet.
Tidy the house
This feels like such a bummer to me because I don’t love being labeled a neat freak - or maybe it’s just that a tidy apartment feels impossible if the baby is inside it - but gosh - I love when the surfaces are clear and the laundry is done and the dishwasher is running. This past weekend E took the baby to a friend’s house for 5 hours and I spent the first 45 minutes tidying the apartment so that I could properly relax.
Drink a cup of tea
A whole item on my “fall to-do list” is to order some spiced loose leaf tea. Does anything soothe the shoulders quite like the first sip of hot tea?
Do my face care routine
Other people call this skincare but I find that most people (including me) stick to their face. So I call it what it is. This year I bought myself a simultaneously luxurious and everyday set from Some Call Me Crunchy. It’s a cleansing oil, a soothing serum, and a complexion mist and everything is in dark amber glass bottles and I feel fancy and smell nice. Win win.
Take a bath
I’m not a take-a-bath-every-day kind of person, but when I need to full stop, I need a long soak.
Go for a run
Exercise might not be what you think of when you think of releasing the ratchet, but running does something for my mental state and the tension between my shoulders that very little else can achieve.
Take a walk
Running isn’t always available - that involves a shower and a change of clothes - but a walk is just a couple steps away.
Have dinner with a group of friends
Ok, so the anticipation leading up to hosting an event or being a guest is next level ratcheting, but then spending time with real humans, laughing, sharing life and food, almost always delivers in the life-giving department.
Listen to music on anything with bass
Right now that’s a pair of 2nd Gen Airpods in a quiet spot, but it’s good enough. The shoulders fall away from the ears and the breath that’s been clenched in the very bottom of my lungs all day or all week lets itself out.
Belly laugh
I mean, you know it.
Sing
Medium long storytime: Once I went to a retreat where we learned to do some breathwork meditation and for one of them we sat in a circle facing out. We closed our eyes and for ten whole minutes we said, “AH” for as long and as loud as we could, pausing only to take another breath, everyone at their own pace. It wasn’t singing, exactly, but something about it: release, release, release. At the end, we went one at a time, one breath each, and I remember someone said how much absolute joy they could hear in my voice. I haven’t been anywhere I have been able to replicate this exercise, but singing as loud as I can on my drive home ain’t bad.
Fellow ratcheters: what does it for you?
Love,
Amy