On Saturday, I took a friend for a spa afternoon (hi Jane!). We swam (well she swam I paddled), had a steam, chilled in the Jacuzzi and then had a Mud Chamber experience.
This involved using exfoliating salts and then coating ourselves in mud before chilling in a little chamber for 45 minutes as the temperature and steam increased. There were no clocks – the whole thing was automatically timed for the showers to come on after 45 minutes of heat (they didn’t as it happens but that’s not the point of the story).
So, we were pretty chilled out after a lie in, leisurely breakfast and an hour by the pool and as we hadn’t seen each other since Christmas we had plenty to catch up on as we sat in the chamber.
But, you know what, 45 minutes (which eventually due to a malfunction turned into 75 minutes) is a really long time to just sit. As time went on we both found ourselves remarking how strange it felt to be so cut off – we were chatting away but quite simply neither of us were used to just sitting still and doing nothing for an hour.
Of course both of us can sit on the sofa for an hour doing not very much of anything productive with the best of them.
But, we are almost always on our phones mindlessly scrolling, chatting online or maybe making a to do list or watching TV as we sit.
Put simply neither of us every really just sit, with just our thoughts, or even without our thoughts. We constantly feel the need to fill time or occupy our mind.
I think it’ got a lot to do with Social Media- having a constant stream of information available. Even if I’m doing something else I’m often multi tasking. I fill my journeys, runs, time cleaning the flat with listening to podcasts, talks I’ve saved and want to hear, music that I need to learn choreography to for classes.
Whilst that might make me productive it also makes me very bad at switching off and stopping my brain from overloading – no wonder I frequently stress myself out.
Taking some time out when possible to sit and relax- be that via meditating or going for a walk and focusing on your surroundings or going for a massage and just focusing on the feeling etc. is actually a skill which I need to learn to be better at, because being able to take time out will ultimately be better for both my metal and physical health.
Heather Sherwood Fitness 