weekend wanderer: a weekend alone

I’m very much an introvert so at any given moment I’d rather be alone than be in the presence of someone, anyone. I can’t help it. It’s who I am. I love being quiet and I love exploring things quietly. People, in general, usually disturb the peace when they begin talking. And unfortunately for me that is a very normal thing to do, talk. For me, however, I love enjoying things on my own and quietly.

My fiance has been away on a business trip in Spain ( … I know. How incredible is that??) and so I’ve been spending a lot of my time alone. I’ve not necessarily been sitting at home alone, but I’ve been doing things alone for the entire trip he’s been away. We check in with each other everyday and then I continue on enjoying my time, quietly. It sounds boring to so many people, and I get it, but to me it’s just glorious.

Well, this weekend I took complete advantage of my alone time. I made zero effort to fill my time with chatter and friends, like I normally would, and purposefully kept to myself. I just wrote a bit on self-care and how important it is. For me, this is a substantial move toward self-care as it resets everything within me, to the core.

When I get caught up being busy in life it becomes hard for me to re-center and find myself within the chaos. With my many roles that I’m juggling right now I begin to feel like I’m being pulled in many directions, like a medieval form of torture. Employee, teacher, friend, daughter, partner, daughter in law, wedding planner, blogger … many of the roles I enjoy but sometimes they all get demanding all at once and that is when I put major brakes on my life for the sake of this self-care. I practice a lot of self-care in the form of many different activities but for me, the single greatest “reset” button is always alone time.

So what did I do? Lots of things, but I ended each day with a walk outside. The most grounding thing for me is to walk in nature (or as close to it as possible) as the sun is setting, or just after. This weekend I walked and walked and walked along the beach, over a bridge, around the neighborhood, and on a boardwalk. It is exactly what I needed.

What is the most grounding form of self-care that you practice? And what kinds of views do YOU see on your walks??

xo