Recharging Is a Real Thing, You Should Try It!
Have you been feeling like a wrung-out sponge recently? Like all types of emotions — good and bad — have been pressed out of you? Have you ever felt too empty to be overwhelmed?
If you have, welcome to the club. And don’t be ashamed, I’ve been there, too.
How Things Went Wrong
The past year hasn’t really worked for me. I felt like the whole world was finally recovering from the deep cuts left in everybody’s life by the pandemic. Most other people seemed to be crawling out of their shells, slowly but surely getting their old lives back or building something new.
For me, it was different: A major, unexpected career change came upon me towards the end of 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, and I’ve spent the past two years adjusting.
Like with every job, there are many aspects that I love about what I do, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. But there are also things that I don’t care for. Meanwhile, I’ve had some financial pressure, a minor identity crisis, and changes in my social circle to deal with.
All of this together has led to me feeling drained of mental energy to cope with even minor nuisances in every aspect of my life. This included everything from feeling physically unable to answer a rude text from someone to lacking the strength and motivation for any physical activity at all for the better part of a year.
At some point throughout all of this, I came across a song by the German band Annenmaykantereit with a line that goes like this:
“Und mir ist mittlerweile klar, das waren Jahre ohne Pause. Und eigentlich weiß ich genau, was ich brauche: ne Pause.”
– Annenmaykantereit in Drei Tage am Meer
Roughly translated, this means something like this:
“In the meantime I’ve realised those were years without a break and now I know exactly what I need: a break.”
I’m not exactly sure why, but for some reason I needed this song to realise that maybe all I needed was a break. A break from everything and everyone, even the people I love. After all, I was going to find myself, and that is probably best done alone.
Maybe I was wrong thinking I was lazy or weak or just not driven enough.
Maybe I had simply forgotten to give myself a much-needed break.
So I went to an off-grid cabin in Ireland alone. For a week straight. And it was the best thing I have ever done for myself.
We All Need a Break Sometimes
It all sounds so cheesy as I’m sitting here in my cabin with a glass of wine on my last night before going back into the real world. But I really mean it when I say the week out here was life-changing. I genuinely feel like I was given a new brain. Never in my adult life have I felt so clear-minded, so absolutely sure about who I am, about what I value and what I want in life.
I no longer feel like a wrung-out sponge lying crumpled up in a corner behind the sink. I feel good about myself and my life — accepting of the past and optimistic about the future.
And all it took was a few days alone in the most beautiful place on earth.
I’m not sure how I’m going to feel a week or three from now, when I’m back in the everyday grind of life. Maybe I’ll end up feeling worse because now I know what it’s like not to feel burnt out and dried up. Maybe I’ll feel better because I’ll manage to implement some of the relaxing things I did out here in my everyday life.
But no matter what happens, I have made a promise to myself:
I will come back here one day, and if all else fails, I can always move here and sell coffee for a living by the seaside.
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