Under water

When you get to the point that you suddenly feel under water, what do you do?  

Around this time of the summer, after weeks of shows with weeks and weeks in between working like mad getting ready for those shows, I usually realize that I've been holding my breath too long and I'm starting to turn blue. My brain gets foggy, my body is dragging, and the joy is on vacation, where I would like to be.  

But the work isn't over. There's so much to be done. So how to get through it?  I'm not sure how anybody else handles it, and I'm sure everyone is different. But I need to take a break. A total brain break. A sleep in break. Leave the studio and breathe air in the sunshine somewhere totally different from the daily grind. Even if it's only for a few hours one morning. Or quitting early and goofing off for the whole evening, starting with Happy Hour.

Sometimes just a little bit of this works and I can come back to the tasks at hand refreshed and ready to focus again, with renewed vigor. Sometimes it takes a little bit more. I've spent the last couple of days doing a little bit more. Reading a whole book in a quiet place. Watching the moon rise from the lake with a bottle of wine.  

There's been hours of work in there too, between a couple of naps.  I'm still checking a few things off the list.  I ran a whole slew of errands in the hot car this afternoon. But the bigger things which take a lot more effort I've put on hold for a couple of days, along with some of the littler things that probably don't even matter in the long run.  Re-looking at priorities and tossing a few things at the bottom is probably a good thing.

What is your method of re-charging?  Shopping? Taking long walks in the forest? Eating pounds of chocolate? A deep tissue massage and meditation? Let us know what works for you in the comments.  Maybe it's something I need to try!