Dear Friends,

I recently read an article written by Arianna Huffington.

She is one of those inspirational leaders that I follow. Her messaging focuses on balance, self-awareness and how to be a leader while also taking care of yourself and those around you. I find her completely inspirational, and, in fact, I met her once!

Many years ago, I was attending a school board conference and she was one of the guest speakers; after her presentation she held a book signing. There I was, all geeked out, eagerly waiting to meet one of my heroines. When it was finally my turn, I froze. Yes, I was actually speechless. I squeaked out a hello, handed my books over, and gave her my name. After my brief stunned silence, the dam broke open and I just gushed about her, how she had inspired me to pursue a different path and how much I appreciated her using her voice for people like me. She was kind, receptive and despite the long line of fans she didn’t rush me through. While my encounter with her was brief, it made a lasting impression on me.

As a fan, I follow her many blogs and articles, particularly when it comes to self-care and professional development. This particular article was about the power of the words we use when discussing our work life. How the words we choose not only impacts our own mental health, but how it affects our co-workers, family and friends.

When someone asks you “How is working going?”, how often you reply with phrases like: “I am so busy”, “I’m drowning”, and “I’m overwhelmed”? In this publication she talked about how being overworked, stressed and feeling like you are buried with a to-do list isn’t healthy. Let’s face it, you are never going to be completely caught up with your work. We need to be better about leaving things “undone”, leaving emails unanswered and giving ourselves permission to walk away at the end of the day.

I am no spokesperson for knowing how to take it easy and walking away from work. Those who know me best understand that I enjoy, and even crave, a busy work life. I thrive in this kind of fast paced environment and if I am not busy then … well … let’s be honest, I am always busy!

However, in recent weeks I am guilty of using phrases like “I am so busy”, “work is insane” and “I’m just keeping my head above water”. Why are these my automatic, go-to responses? Is it just easier than explaining the long list of things I am working on? My response should be positive, not negative. I am going to be better about this.

Occasionally you need to take a step back and force yourself to relax. I am certainly no poster child for someone who knows how to do this, but I am trying. And when you haven’t made time for yourself, a higher power steps in to make the decision for you.

Thanks to our mid-March winter storm this past weekend, I found myself home alone for an entire day.

I can’t tell you the last time I was home alone with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Rach returned to college last weekend, Grace was at a friend’s house, my husband was called out at 4 am to plow and was gone all day. The whole day was mine, to do whatever I wanted.

It was so weird.

I enjoyed the first few hours. I slept in, had a couple cups of coffee while I caught up on my shows from this week, and bummed around.

The house was too quiet.

Eventually I put on some music and decided that I should take the opportunity to clean. Soon the best of the 2000’s was blasting from our Alexa, and I was scrubbing down my kitchen cabinets. Next, I cleaned out the microwave (by the way, anyone who does this is a Saint and deserves a medal). For the next three hours I cleaned, swept, mopped and organized the downstairs and also started my laundry, which was piled high.

I know what you are saying … that is not relaxing. In my defense, my schedule has been so hectic lately that this deep clean was necessary. I also think the spring-cleaning bug got me, hence the cabinet scrub down.

My big achievement for the day is that I didn’t do any office work. This is a big deal for me. Most weekends I spend at least part of a day at the office trying to catch up on paperwork and prepping for the week ahead. Truth be told, if it was not for the snowstorm I would have gone to the office, so I do feel like this was Mother Nature’s way of telling me to “leave it” until Monday.

My day of solitude gave me the opportunity to learn a few things about myself.

First, I didn’t like being alone all day. I was good for a few hours, but eventually the silence got to me, I missed my kids, my husband and I was really bored.

Second thing is that I really don’t know how to relax. Maybe I need a hobby or something? What do people do on their downtime other than read and bake?

I also learned an important lesson about watching True Crime shows. You really shouldn’t do this when you are home alone. And if you do, and you hear a noise upstairs, before calling your husband in a panic that it’s either a ghost or the missing serial killer, remember that you have cats.

Be well,

~ Kerri

The views and opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of any entity that this author represents.