Yesterday I left my house at 7 am and didn’t get home until 11 pm. I had a pretty good day, but it ended with a stressful meeting and a 40 minute drive behind someone who had no interest in doing anything close to the speed limit. I got home feeling drained! I went to bed but couldn’t really fall asleep. Fast forward to 2 am, when I woke up thinking about work. EW! I woke up with a headache and felt like I hadn’t slept at all.
Mental health day, boom!
I woke up 4 hours after my alarm originally went off and felt refreshed. I put dinner in the crockpot and laced up my boots. Puddin’ and I headed out on the trail to enjoy the sun peaking through the trees.
The temperature was almost 40 degrees, the trail was empty, and Pandora provided the perfect soundtrack.
I got my heart pumping up the mountain, focused on the peaceful feeling of the woods, and took a couple of extra deep breaths.
I already feel so rejuvenated. The rest of my day will be filled with grocery shopping and food prep for the chicken parm dinner I’m making for my sweetie tomorrow (going out for vday is so overrated), cleaning and organizing, and I think I’ll finish with some yoga. Mental health day success!
Do you ever take mental health days? How do you fight stress?
