Winding Down in Gijon
Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time – Bertrand Russel
It’s interesting to be doing my standard Sunday night post from Gijon on the northern coast of Spain. I’ve gotten pretty far from my normal life over the last two and a half months and well, that was the plan. A little extra weird to be writing on a US holiday weekend.
At this point I still expected to be hiking but I’ve ended up at the beach instead. I’ve come to realize the reason I’m here is to slowdown. Even while I was hiking in Scotland/Spain I was scheduled, which basically means I’ve been scheduled continuously over the last two and a half years. I know, you’re thinking don’t expect any sympathy from me I’ve been scheduled continuously for….years. Is that a good thing?
To be clear, I’m not looking for sympathy, just some change. A chance just to stop and wind down. To get a bit away from the standard American mindset of go go go. It’s not easy, it’s ingrained in us at our core. It’s taken me almost three full days to start to let go. To get to the point where binge watching Netflix, strolling the beach and paths around Gijon, and just watching waves truly feels ok.
The first couple of days it made me anxious, shouldn’t I be accomplishing something. Doing a specific hike, or going to a museum, or kayaking on the ocean. And honestly the answer is no, relaxing, letting go, IS something. Something important that none of us do enough of in our lives. My only lament about Gijon is there don’t ever seem to be any clouds to watch.
Even very often when we vacation we over schedule ourselves. We fly/drive someplace, spend a couple of scheduled days sightseeing, rush to fly/drive home and go to work the next day. As a result, we do in fact often find ourselves continually scheduled for …years. It’s not healthy, we all need a break from time to time and not just an afternoon. And I know it’s not easy, it seems impossible, but it isn’t and it’s something you need to do. As with most things, it comes down to desire and planning.
This bit of time in Gijon has been good for me, I’m starting to feel a bit of a mental reset setting in. I’ve even come to some hard decisions just by allowing myself the mental space, freedom and most importantly the time to dwell on things. The best part, I have two more days here.
Spain is a good place to do this, things move at a slower pace here. There is no hurry, no tight schedule. Society seems, in general, to move at a less structured and hurried flow. It makes it frustrating at first, but easier in the long run to mellow out and have a happy day my friends. So two more days to stick my toes in the ocean and enjoy the waves before returning to being a bit more of a tourist for awhile, I hope you can find some time to wind down as well. – Rev Kane
The Ministry of Happiness 