Some days I am so busy and things are so crazy at work, I don't know how to slow down when I get off work. In fact, sometimes I am genuinely surprised at how overwhelmingly busy work can be. Sometimes I look at the clock and it's 3 pm and it feels like it should be 10 am and I am slightly panicked about how much I still need to accomplish before the end of my day. I never end my day having accomplished everything I set out to do in the morning. My job will always have a never ending task list that I will never actually reach the end of. I have accepted that but it does make my brain a little crazy.
Once I leave work I generally probably have some sort of school work I should attend to. If it's not reading it's a paper, or articles, or presentations or a test. You get the idea. I read and write all day at work and then I read an write at home and if I have free time I am always trying to squeeze in either more reading that is also in relation to school and I feel will just help me be a better counselor OR I collapse on the couch and stare at The Real Housewives of Orange County for a hour while my brain does almost nothing.
It feels like I am either in full academic/psychology/behavioral health mode or my brain needs to completely escape. And this is frequently a problem. Because I find that my brain does not want to turn off. Sometimes I literally cannot sit still for a whole episode of the Housewives just because my brain is still too engaged.
My other thing I have been experiencing lately is this feeling that this schedule is relentless and never ending. Sometimes it really doesn't seem there will ever be a time in my life again that will involve free time of the sort of would like to find. Or vacations. I can't find the time to do so many things I would like to do because at least for the next year and 1/2, the time to do those things just doesn't exist. I know I will get through it.
Saving my mind right now is Duo Lingo.
What the heck is Duolingo you may ask. Well it's a phone app on which you can practice language skills in several other languages and the best part is, it's free.
I learned some french in high school and college but I have never been proficient. I LOOOOOOOVE this app. When my brain can't turn off I just flip open this app and start practicing French and feel myself just completely in some sort of fantastic zen space. Sometimes I can't stop and I have to force myself to move on to other tasks. My french is getting so much better. Yesterday on NPR there was a press conference in french which they translated - but I understood well over 50% of it before the translation. It's awesome.
If you want to brush up on a language you once kinda sorta learned a little of or if you want to learn one you've never tried I highly recommend it. It's like playing a video game but it's not a waste of time.
Also. I really want to go to France when I have a different situation wherein I can actually leave my house for an extended vacation at some point in the future. My goal is to go the year I turn 50. So learning French better feels like it is increasing my likelihood of having a better vacation.
Which brings me to my one other sanity saver which I've discussed before. Pinterest images of the places I'd like to go in France.
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| Provence |
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| French Riviera |
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| Monmartre |
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| Cannes |
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| Neptune Fountain - Versailles |
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| French Riviera |
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| Provence |
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| Versailles |
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| Burgundy |
But for now it's back to two papers I need to write.
