I’ve Run Out of Gas, but We’re Weeks from the Next Comfort Break
Anyone else limping to the summer finish line? Here's what I'm doing to get there as unscathed as possible.
I’m aware the vehicle analogy is incongruous coming from a woman incapable of passing her driving test, but at this time of year, I know I’m not the only one running on empty. More accurately, I’d say I’m as dry as the Sahara. By my judgement, we have a full three weeks left before silly season is truly upon us (when enough people are on summer holiday in any given work environment as to render a tacit go-slow). There’s always a tipping point when enough emails bounce-back that a level of leaning out becomes almost universally condoned. It is tantalisingly close; we can all see it twinkling in the distance.
The problem is that I cannot rev myself up for today, let alone for the next 21 sun cycles. It is not hard to diagnose the situation and I’m aware the only prescription is rest. I haven’t taken a week off Substack this year so far, on top of launching a book here & in the US, working on two others, co-ordinating the busiest two quarters of my content creating career, trying on 120 wedding dresses, organising two weddings and you know, mum-ing two boys intent on testing every single one of my trigger points. The cup has truly overfloweth. I don’t need to tell any of you, I’m sure your coins are equally spent.
The past month has also seen my fiancé and I high fiving like ships in the night with four overseas trips between us. Silly clearly isn’t just a season in my house. It’s not that I’m unaware that some of this is self-inflicted and I’m sure I should have said no to circa 37% of the things I RSVP’d to in the affirmative. *To an extent* I have brought this on myself. But that extent is pretty much my personality which is tricky to rectify forty years in.
Anyway, we can all throw stones at ourselves ‘til the cows come home (fried brain clearly leading to increased use of folksy similes) but this is where we are and instead of wasting energy bemoaning our fates, we’ve got to strategise how we’re going to keep flogging the horse ‘til the end of July. Having a keen awareness of the spectre of burnout has certainly shifted the way I react to these periods, and I am certainly not here to tell anyone, least of all myself, to power home for a sprint finish. But the reality is that I’m locked into certain responsibilities (including a three-year-old who has started waking at 4.30am, fresh hell) and there is no way to wriggle entirely free of them before I pass the chequered flag (otherwise known as my honeymoon, promise I’ll stop now).
Every day at the school gate, I see these absolutely shattered looking kids tumbling out, red in the face, drained from running around in the schoolyard under the beating sun. I can so remember the childhood feeling of summer lethargy. Feeling similarly listless, sluggish and totally unmotivated in the warmer weather? That will be summer brain. For all of us, the seasonal shift has a scientifically proven impact on our energy and resolve. There is a kind of temperature-based involuntary loosening up that you just can’t fight against. The hotter the weather, the more energy your body expends simply keeping homeostasis going, which means that activities you usually find effortless – cycling to the corner shop, trying on a dress, walking up the damn stairs – feel burdensome. The body does adapt by producing more plasma (some evidence suggests out bodies increase plasma capacity by up to 13% in the heat) which in turn brings more oxygen to our muscles and helps regulate our body temperature. After two weeks, your body normally adapts to handle an increase in temperature.
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