Embracing the Quiet

After a morning of fighting with smarmy journal editors (I mean, they accepted the article as is over a year ago and sent me a list of questions yesterday that a kindergartner could have inferred--slight hyperbole, but I'm allowed, my blog), I was especially grateful that I had scheduled my Mother's Day/draft one is finished spa afternoon for yesterday. It's always a blissful experience. I was there for three hours, and yet I felt as though I had been on a three week vacation--refreshed and relaxed in way that I don't often feel. As I was sipping my mint tea and listening to the new age instrumental music, I tried to discern exactly what about this place is so transformative, and, perhaps most importantly, how can I bring that into my day to day existence. Here is what I learned...

Life Lessons from a Spa:

1. Sometimes, a little fluff is needed. (If I am reading, it's usually pretty heavy stuff--educational critical theory, research journals, texts I'm teaching--I need to make time for fluff. There is something about reading something you absolutely do not need to remember that has no direct application to your life that is just fun.)


2. Scent is powerful. (The spa has seasonal scents, and everything is the same--soaps, shampoos, lotions, candles. Being enveloped in a single, restful scent is calming.)


3. Live in the moment. (This has been my goal for the year. By nature, I'm a planner. When I'm doing one thing, I have a tendency to be thinking about the next. I'm really trying to just live in the moment.)


4. Embrace the quiet. (This is so difficult for me. I don't generally enjoy quiet. I think I need noise in the background. I almost always have the TV or the radio on, which means I'm easily distracted by the latest headline or a great song. Blocking all the noise and just embracing the quiet is intrinsically calming and something I really need to try to do.)

It was a perfect afternoon, and now I'm ready to dive back into the real world, but I think I'll try focusing on one thing at a time and really see if I can embrace a little quiet today.