on the fly: TWA hotel

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Coming back from vacation is always a bit rough… and returning to real life from an amazing 10-day vacation to Greece with my entire family and boyfriend was, well very tough, to say the least. Now, this wasn’t just hard on my body because of the 10-hour plane ride, or the jet lag.

I had mixed emotions about returning alone to Austin (all of my family & boyfriend lives near NYC), coming back to work and routine, and most of all, facing the tug of war in my mind between constant improvement and allowing myself rest.

Vacation often forces us to rest. Even if its an adventurous one — our minds and bodies often slip into a state of easy alignment, allowing ourselves to just enjoy. I often give myself excuses not to slow down during my normal work week; to squeeze out productivity or tightly pack my schedule with things I label as “self improvement”; Constantly moving forward, forward, forward… never letting myself just be. While this has lead me to achieve and experience some amazing things in life, anything in excess eventually becomes detrimental. My vacation forced me to slow down - something inherently difficult for me.

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hotel gym

food

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Naturally, returning from a long trip brought in some anxiety… not only because of my to-do list, but because my type-A, structured, productivity-centered mindset kicked into high gear - and was not happy that I hadn’t fed it in a week. The plane ride back is really when I started feeling the floodgates open; Thinking I should have been checking my emails, scolding myself for taking rest. But, I noticed these feelings. I was able to label them as thoughts, and recognize that despite the feelings they came with, they are simply distorted versions of reality born out of a transition period.

I’ve found that when actions are fueled by acceptance of what you need in the current moment,