The one thing having a week of not being beholden to a job brings you is the opportunity to detox.
I am a big believer in the concept, and practice, of detoxing your life. Clearing out the space. Organizing. Burning the sage. De-cluttering. I think it’s healthy to have daily intentions, as it’s been my experience that it’s the day-to-day, moment-by-moment decisions that truly make up the fabric of our lives. Just the same, if you get a chance to make room for big change, the kind that paves the way for easier decision making on a daily basis, life is infinitely better.
How obvious is it that I’ve been working for Oprah, huh?
Anyway, I still believe this with all of my heart, and it’s why I was firm about not immediately going from one job into the next, with nary a break to be had. It was not an easy decision to make, because I lean towards workaholicism. This, of course, is a large part of the problem, and so I’ve designed this week to address it. I want to work hard, but I also want to avoid how toxic my life has become: crashing on Friday nights, retreating from friends, mindless eating, sporadic yoga and meditation practicing, and on and on. There won’t be perfection, but I’m determined to right some of the wrongs that have contributed to living such a stressful life.
Step one for today is unsubscribing from the countless e-mails I receive each day. Each minute. With the exception of a small few, I’ve shut out the noise that, at this point, I just spent all sorts of time deleting anyway. I am all about quality, not quantity, and I’m unable to discern between the two these days. It feels like a very tangible thing I can do for myself on a daily basis, moving forward. And really? Do I need to know every single time one of my Flickr contacts uploads a picture or three? Probably not more than once a day.
There’s more for this week, but the act of letting go of the majority of e-mails I get seemed like something big. I wish I would have given myself permission to do it sooner!
The best thing I ever did for my sanity was to take two weeks and Unsubscribe from all of those retail and informational emails that I got daily. I didn’t even read most of them, and if I wanted to find out which concerts were playing at the theater nearby, I could go and seek out that info on my own, rather than have the theater send me daily emails. I was so overwhelmed with them all, and I never just deleted them for fear that I would need them at some point. (Which I very rarely did.)
It did take two weeks for them to go away. Some of them I had to Unsubscribe a few times to, but now when I open my inbox there are emails that I want to read from people that I know, rather than the coupon code from Shutterfly or the new deals at Sephora.
I feel so much better at the reduced amount of clutter in my inbox.
I am also a firm believer of detoxing one’s life and was just reading about short term detox diets that last a few days (Martha Stewart has one on her site). Aside from physical clutter, I’m trying to apply the concepts to food as well. But it’s going to be hard eating cold cucumber soups for lunch when it’s chilly out.
Have fun with your free week!
I just unsubscribed from all those emails, too! (Did Land’s End really need to contact me EVERY DAY? Really?) I do feel lighter. Bless.
Oh wow, I didn’t know that your previous job was working for Oprah! Good luck on your new endeavor.
I’ve been reading “When Organizing Isn’t Enough” by julie morgenstern – she has a chapter on schedule clutter. Good habit to break. Good luck.
I had a personal organizer come help me for 3 hours this week to get some of my loft in order. I did it somewhat begrudgingly (takes a lot to admit you want/need to pay someone to help you organize your stuff) but it was so freeing and already I feel so much lighter! So recommended if the physical clutter is weighing down in addition to the mental.
Hope you are well!