You’ve had a difficult day. Maybe you had to make a whole office redundant, you heard that your friend’s mum died, Microsoft were playing silly buggers with your work computer, a customer was rude to you or worse, several were rude in a row, the golf club have just insisted that you spend £150 in the bar a year, or it was just Wednesday and your turn to try to teach 5 year olds before or after they have PE. Any of these things will require self care.
You might reach for the gin and tonic or a large glass of wine. A walk, a swim or a sing can help. Chocolate is a well known cure. And each person will have a hierarchy of self care.
Last night, I realised that I had reached peak overload. The evening walk (which has become a routine self-care measure since I got parent shaped holes in my brain) wasn’t quite cutting it but I felt too cold/tired for a swim. I couldn’t focus on reading and the TV was too flashy. This was a clear indicator that it was time to change the lightbulb. Quick, put the red bulb in. This is a red-alert, don’t panic, everyone remain calm but initiate top tier self-care package.
Action stations.
Make sure the water is hot. Put PJs or other comfort clothes on radiator. Oven on, shake frozen chips from a packet onto a tray. Sit in a dark room until oven timer pings. Thickly butter two slices of bread. Smother chips in salt and vinegar and make an oozing chip butty. Cut into rectangles, never triangles, you are worth it.
Take plate upstairs and run the hottest bath you can bear. Sit in bath, eating chip butty and listening to a murdery podcast (or better yet, Comfort Eating with Grace Dent). Stay in bath until water starts to get cold and fingers resemble dried peas. Get out. Put pyjamas on. Search house for chocolate that doesn’t belong to you. Sit in dark room eating stolen chocolate (KitKats are perfect). Wonder where the last 5 hours have gone. Go to bed.
This morning the amber bulb is back in. Just don’t ask me anything complicated, like remembering a password.
No comments:
Post a Comment