Adopt a "camping mindset"
As we all know, I’ve been camping a lot lately. Like, as many weekends as possible (and even some weekdays!) before winter hits.
Camping has provided all of the obvious benefits I wanted from it — feeling more connecting to nature, meeting cool people, disconnecting, slowing down, appreciating this beautiful state I get to live in, and hanging with my creature friends. Camping also had an unexpected benefit: adopting a new mindset for my evenings at home.
Here’s the deal: I’m a morning person through and through. This wasn’t always the case, but 6 years ago I trained myself to become a morning person (would y’all wanna hear tips for how to do that? Or do we not care? Let your girl know.).
Over the years, I’ve grown to loathe nighttime. Loathe is a strong word, but I just don’t really know what to do with my nights. When you’re single, live alone, and have your own company (that operates out of your house) there is A LOT of alone time and it’s hard to compartmentalize your day. All of this to say, sometime between the hours of 4:30p-6:30p I declare that “nighttime” has begun. Then, “nighttime” ends between 8:30p-10:30p when I go to bed (mama wakes up early, ok?).
I recognized a few weeks ago that this was the only chunk of time in my day that does not feel intentional. I sort of check out, turn on the TV, eat my dinner, and catch up on texts. Yes, I have nights that look differently, but on the average weekday this is what's going on. Given the work I’ve done on living an intentional life, this lack of intent really started getting under my skin. I felt like I was giving away hours in my day, and after a decade long career where I was never in control of my time, that made me super sad.
I worked with my coach on this and we were able to identify a new perspective on nighttime and how to make it intentional. Enter: camping mindset.
Camping mindset to me means slowing down, disconnecting from technology, and feeling more creative. I then came up with a list of 32 different things I could do during “nighttime” hours that would fit in this category (everything from packing a picnic inside my apartment to building dinosaurs out of clay). This is all only a week old and I’m still testing and iterating, but my brain already feels more lit up and relaxed at the same time.
BRB, going off the grid until Monday — backpacking up to Jordan Hot Springs in Sequoia. Catch ya on the flippity flip!
I’m curious, what are your favorite ways to spend evenings alone that feel intentional?
