Skip to main content

Mental Recharge

By
Is there anything better for a mental recharge than physical activity?  I hit the jackpot today.  The Friendship Firehouse in Alexandria, Virginia was having an open house.  That means a whole street blocked off and lined with big, red fire trucks and pint-size firefighters.  I don't have a car and it is five miles away so I took a cab there and started the morning with my little pint-size guy.  We explored the reflective surfaces of the hubcaps, the hidey-holes that store supplies, the thick fire hoses that put out fires, and someone even checked out the underside of an ambulance!  After an exciting morning with friends from his class, we were ready to head home.  And that is where my fun began.  A five-mile meandering walk with a quick stop for lunch about half-way while the little guy was napping.  It was a beautiful day.  And as I walked the stress from the week started to melt away.  Not all of it yet, I am guessing that will be a walk tomorrow.  But quite a lot.  We both got a lot of fresh air, loads of Vitamin D, and our legs stretched.  He's sound asleep and I know I will sleep better.

I walk a lot during the week but it is usually get here, get there, and pretty much always running late.  Today's walk was relaxing and oddly energizing.  I remember fondly the year that I did that type of walk pretty much every night.  While I know those days are gone, I am sincerely looking forward to Fall and a little bit cooler weather that will hopefully allow for a few fun exploration walks during the week and longer outside time on the weekends.  And seriously, what a way to recharge, spending time with the most important little guy in my life and showing him the joy of physical activity and taking time to smell the roses (or undercarriage of the ambulance as the case may be).

What activities recharge you physically and mentally?  Do they have to be alone or do you like to recharge in group activities like family bike rides or a running club?  When was the last time you treated yourself to a recharge day?  Look at your schedule now and plan 30 minutes of recharge during the week and a whole-day activity in the next two weeks.  Your health and mental acuity are counting on you to do it!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What an Extraverted Intuitive Needs to be Productive

By
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is based on the work of Swiss psychiatrist Carl G. Jung. Jung observed that people have inborn preferences for gathering information and making decisions and that these preferences guide an individual’s behavior. The mother/daughter team of Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers expanded on Jung’s theories and created an assessment to make the combined work accessible to all individuals. Today, the assessment is used by most Fortune 100 companies and over two million people worldwide, annually. The assessment identifies an individual’s inborn preferences on four dichotomous scales: where you focus your energy, how you prefer to take in information, how you make decisions, and how you deal with the outer world. Type is best used to understand other people, improve communication, and develop individual skills. The first dichotomy is Extraversion (gets energy from other people) and Introversion (gets energy from reflection).  The second...
1 comment
Read more

What is True Self Awareness and Why is Important for Personal/Professional Development?

By
You know my opinion that when it comes to professional development , you get out of a program what you put into it.  So now you get my opinion on the single most important element of personal/professional development. 
SELF AWARENESS 
 What is it?  Self awareness is knowing your strengths and how to maximize them, knowing your weaknesses and how to buffer them, knowing that you have blind spots and being open to feedback about them, and being willing to do the necessary reflection and work to constantly improve yourself. I have observed so many people in leadership development programs (1 hour to 18 month) listen to an amazing instructor describe an action, reaction, or career derailer and immediately speak up and identify someone else who has that quality.  You would not believe how often, that person has the same quality.  However, they often even follow up with because of my experience working with that person I make a point to not do this.  Awkward....
Post a Comment
Read more

What Do Elmo, Colbie Caillat, and Daniel Goleman Have in Common?

By
"When your monster wants to throw things and your monster wants to shout, there's a way to calm your monster, and chill your inner monster out."  We laugh when we play this for our young child and the cute little Elmo turns into a monster and we dance with our little one when Colbie Caillat melodically sings "Belly Breathe."   http://youtu.be/_mZbzDOpylA   Toddlers are notorious for meltdowns.  All the research says it is because they don't have the words to express their feelings and guide the parents to stay calm. But what about when you are at work and YOUR monster wants to throw things?  The Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i), a popular emotional intelligence assessment, includes Emotional Management and Regulation as one of composite scales with Stress Tolerance and Impulse Control as subscales.  In other words, how well can you chill your inner monster out? In his book  Emotional Intelligence , Daniel Goleman, posits that 20 percent of an in...
Post a Comment
Read more