New Year Hibernation
Happy New Year everyone.
Let me tell you what’s up in Slow Life Revolution world. A fast life, that’s what.
I’ve been more addicted to my phone than ever and I feel like getting away from it all. And by “it all”, I mean the over-connectedness that our phones provide for our brains.
The reason I can’t get away is because it makes me happy. I feel like I’m connecting with people and seeing what art people are making and discovering new music. But then I lose hours of my life until I’m too exhausted to do anything of actual caliber. Or I’m working until all hours of the night to finish my work since I wasted hours on social media earlier.
With the new year comes new resolutions and habit-setting strategies and goals. But I’m not a big fan of pushing myself to the limit to make sure I’m successful. My ideal life is sitting on a comfortable couch, working part-time and spending a lot of my time outdoors or on art projects. That’s not what most people call success.
I needed a reminder to slow down this year and I want to remind you too.
Let’s give ourselves a break this year.
Instead of bowing down to the grind culture, let’s rest instead. Sometimes I want to just shut my eyes and be in a silence for hours – oh that’s called sleeping… right. Well it’s also available to me throughout the day rather than only late at night after all my work is done.
December is always crazy. There are holidays, and get togethers, and also the push to get all my work and goals accomplished before the end of the year so I can feel more fulfilled and start the new year with a clean slate.
i'm not complaining. I love December, but after December 31, it feels like there should be a break.
But no.
With the start of a new year, we are told to work toward your new goals, make more habits, make more work for yourself. Can’t stop, won’t stop. This can be empowering when I’m feeling very inspired and like working a lot, but just to do it because I want to feel like an accomplished person in society (aka to fit in) isn’t working for me anymore.
I want to slow down again.
And I invite you all to slow down and take a break after last year. It is winter (in the northern hemisphere). Let’s do what bears do and hibernate for a while. You can start your goals in March. Lol just kidding (but also serious).
I do love visualizing my future and working toward something I’m striving for, but I don’t want to compromise the life I’m living now. I also want to enjoy my time every day. And to me that means I want to:
Take naps or just lay down during the day without my phone around me
Go for walks without music or a podcast playing
Sit and actually listen to music (or do anything) without multi-tasking
Notice the world around me – the people, birds, nature
Write my thoughts down to document the life I’m living now
Read actual paper books
Those are my early year thoughts. Take them or leave them. I’m going to take them and go hibernate now.