Conscious Living: Vacation Day

This post is written by contributing author Shelly Kerry. 

I had the great pleasure of spending last weekend in Portland attending the World Domination Summit. All weekend we were surrounded by big movers and shakers in the creative world, listening to awesome lectures on how to live and work with meaning and meeting incredibly inspiring people from all over the world. The weekend left me with a full heart, a racing mind and utterly exhausted. After returning to a very busy week of work, I need another vacation.

Do you ever find yourself in this situation?
After a vacation spent discovering a new city or visiting relatives you come home needing another week to yourself? I only recently discovered my personal meaning of a true vacation – lying on a beach; phone-less, computer- less and with a stack of really good books. Well right now I am unable to jump on a plane to Mexico but I have discovered a great way to achieve the same results in the comfort of my own home.

I call it Vacation Day and I take mine tomorrow. Tonight when I fall asleep, I will turn off my phone, put in my ear plugs and wake up whenever I want. There will be no plans made and the entire day will be spent doing whatever I want. 

Photo: Shelly Kerry

For natural planners like me, this is much harder than it seems and it has taken me a whole week to mentally plan for it. I know that the rewards will be great.

You definitely deserve a little vacation day too

I would love for you to join me and I have some great advice on giving yourself the space to let it happen.

First, if you live with a husband, wife, partner, family etc. ask them to help you make this vacation day happen. Let them know they can have their own sometime soon but this one is yours. Before your vacation buy them some awesome food, maybe pack their bags, hug them and then send them on their way for a day. Promise that you will love them even more when they return! Just kidding? Not really.

If instead of a household of people to worry about you are like me and you are concerned about appeasing the over-achiever, planner side of you then guess what? You can do everything later. Sadly, yes the dishes will still be there tomorrow. So will the laundry and all the other projects you want to get done when you find spare time. If you wake up on your vacation day with a burning desire to play all your old records, open all the windows and clean the house for the next 12 hours AND can honestly say that you are cleaning because you really, really want to then by all means do it! But if there is any chance that you are doing it because you think you need to then stop. Vacation Day is for only doing things you want to do.

This all may seem incredibly self-centered to you but honestly there is NOTHING egotistical about self-care. I wholeheartedly believe that not taking care of yourself is one of the most selfish things you can do to your family and friends. It might take up to a week to plan for your vacation day. So don’t waste any more time. Go ahead and mark that day on the calendar.

Shelly Kerry is co-owner of Lightbox SF. She is an artist, designer, and motivator. Since 2006 she has been working to build her own jewelry design business, em’s studio, and she wants to share all she’s learned. Shelly knows that building your own art or craft business can often feel lonely and overwhelming. She also understands how much of a struggle it is to balance a “day job” with a budding creative business. Read more about her here. Connect to Shelly via twitter or facebook.