Self-Care for the Overwhelmed

Today is National Relaxation Day! I know what you’re thinking…yay, another random and superfluous holiday that’s not really a holiday. But, what if we look at this another way?

Every day, we’re surrounded by machines and computers that are pushing our days forward. We wake up to alarms, our coffee pots buzz at us, our cars/trains/busses hum and roar, our phones beep, buzz and vibrate so constantly that we have phantom vibration syndrome. It’s all so much and it’s all of the time. 

Let’s, for one day, try it a different way. Let’s think of National Relaxation Day as a reminder that we don’t have to be a big ball of stress or an overwhelmed mess. We can decide, in this day, to take a little time to relax. It doesn’t have to be the entire day, but a little bit of relaxation time – 20, 30, 60 minutes – might be the highlight of your week. 

Now that we’ve decided that we don’t have to take the entire day to relax, but we can relax at our leisure, what exactly should we do to relax? Well, I have a few suggestions for you…

      Take a walk in the park: For most of us, being in nature is inherently relaxing. Strolling through the woods, listening to the birds chirping and hearing the wind blowing through the trees…absolutely relaxing. If you happen to live near water (I’m lucky enough to be minutes away from Lake Erie) find a park near your lake or river and walk there. Adding the lapping of waves or the rushing of a stream to your walk will connect you even more to nature and help you to detach from the constant stream of tech and reconnect to yourself. 

  

     Eat your favorite meal: There’s something to be said about comfort food. On a day where we’re attempting to relax, why not approach it from all angles, including from your center (or your stomach). Now, I might be suggesting this because I love to eat – and I love to cook and I find both activities very relaxing, but I’m guessing I’m not alone on this one. Even if your favorite meal is prepared by your favorite restaurant, go ahead and indulge. The key to keeping this activity relaxing is to truly enjoy your meal and enjoy yourself. Eat slowly, much slower than normal. Taste the food. Enjoy it. And don’t judge yourself for enjoying it. 

Tune out early: About an hour or so before you go to bed tonight, turn off or silence all of your tech – including your TV. In our age of technology, we tend to undervalue silence. Moving about your night-time routine in silence will help to restore your mind and give you some much needed relaxation before hitting the hay. This type of tech-time-out gives you an opportunity to clear your mind and prepare yourself for a restful night of sleep.

Those are all of my tips for the day, and although it is rainy and a little dreary here, I think I’m going to take my own advice. It’d be great if we could find time every day for relaxation, but today – it’s the official holiday – you’ve been given permission (and a few suggestions), now get out there and relax!

*Written by Lindsay S., a proud writer, swimmer, and Redwood resident.

Dinner Party Perfection - 3 Tips To Throwing A Fantastic Summer Dinner Party

There are very few things that I love more than throwing dinner parties. It is a great way to get your friends and family together to relax and have fun. Of course, some dinner parties are just massive stress-fests. But, with a bit of planning and strategy, you can show your friends a good time while having a good time yourself.

 

Tip #1 – Pick a Theme

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that you have to go all out and decorate your apartment like the 2016 Rio Olympic Village or like the set of Star Trek Beyond. I’m simply suggesting that the first step to making the party a great one is to find a single thread that will bring everything, from the décor to the appetizers, together cohesively. Your theme doesn’t need to be apparent to your guests; it’s simply an organizing schema for you. Since it is summer, you might consider a theme as simple as Citrus. Let that theme take you to all sorts of cool places – your base colors can be orange, yellow & green. It’s bright and cheerful without being overly juvenile. You can also take the citrus theme to your food and prepare a set of dishes that each highlight a different citrus fruit. 

If a food-based theme isn’t your thing, try an activity-based theme, something along the lines of board or card games. You can also do a wine tasting or movie marathon. One of my absolute favorite memories from graduate school is a James Bond movie marathon party that a friend of mine threw. It was one part elegant and one part raucous. We had a fantastic evening, eating and drinking and critiquing every Bond and Bond girl throughout the ages. This type of theme is a great way to introduce your friends to one of your passions, but in a fun and engaging way. 

 

Tip #2 – Stay Tried & True

In our Pinterest and Instagram competitive world, it can be tempting to try to show off every dish you’ve ever learned to cook (and some you’re just trying out for the first time). But, in order for your dinner party to go off without any missteps, you should plan to present a respectable mixture of ready-made/store bought dishes with a set of your favorite tried and true homemade recipes. Getting overly ambitious has ruined many a dinner party – making the night miserable for the host and the guests. 

Choosing the food for your dinner party will be made significantly easier after you’ve chosen a theme. From there, make a list of 5 – and no more than 5 – dishes that you’d like to serve. From that list, pick the 2 that you cook better than your local grocery store and cook those. Everything else can be bought prepared. Be smart about this; try to choose at least one dish that you can make ahead (and reheat or serve cold). That will be one fewer thing for you to think about on the day of your party.  Remember, you want to have fun at this party. That won’t be possible if you’re in the kitchen monitoring the Crown Roast as it simmers in your Homemade Apple Cider broth. 

 

Tip #3 – Keep it Simple

Since my first tip is to pick a theme, you might be thinking that I mean for you to go on a décor shopping spree. I don’t. Matter of fact, I’d suggest you not buy a single item of décor. Your apartment is impressive enough as it is – especially if you’re living at Redwood! Don’t go all out on fancy décor items or spend tons of money and time making party favors – this isn’t a bridal shower, it’s a dinner party. Keeping it casual will help your guests feel at home, which is exactly how you want them to feel. If you’re feeling compelled to decorate, keep it simple and cheap by shopping thrift and dollar stores. You can find great bargains – and with a preselected theme (and budget) you’ll know what you’re looking for. 

I know that the temptation to use a dinner party to impress your friend is very high – very, very high. But, think of how much more impressive it will be if you’re able to be relaxed and present at your party. With a theme and a bit of help from the store – and nixing the big bang décor – your party will be fantastic because you’ll be there and you’ll be able to give your guests the type of care and attention that is truly impressive.  

*Written by Lindsay S., a proud writer, swimmer, and Redwood resident.

Never Stop Improving - How the Summer Olympics Turned Me into a Swimmer

As an American kid, there was always one thing that I was constantly looking forward to – the Olympics. My love of the Olympic Games started out with a fascination with figure skating. I’d float (read: fall) around in my childhood living room pretending that I was Michelle Quan or Oksana Bauil. It was so fun and inspiring watching those young women, who didn’t seem much older than me, striving for their dreams and performing to their own highest possible level. 

As I grew up, my Olympic Games fascination expanded to include the summer games. I would watch the 200 meter sprints and run outside and race with other kids in the neighborhood to see which of us was headed to the next Summer Olympics. As a girl, it was great to be able to see women who were competing at high levels in everything from pole vaulting to archery to synchronized swimming. 

The swimming competitions were always most fascinating, mostly because I didn’t know how to swim (It’s not the only childhood milestones that eluded me, I don’t know how to ride a bike either, but don’t tell anyone). Though I was a highly competitive kid, who participated in a variety of sports, not knowing how to swim was never a particular issue. Neither my elementary, middle, nor high school had a pool, so I wasn’t missing out on any swimming sports. It wasn’t until I was given the opportunity to go on an all-expense paid trip to an academic conference in Puerto Rico during my Junior year in college that my lack of swimming ability became…problematic. 

Although I was a little embarrassed that I was unable to swim, I wasn’t driven to make any change in that status until a particularly insane swimmer was introduced to me through the 2000 Summer Olympics. Watching Michael Phelps swim like a human machine flipped a switch in me that spurred me to action. It wasn’t until the Olympic trials for the Beijing Olympics that my conviction to learn to swim really kicked in. At the time, I was in graduate school and I simply bit the bullet and signed up for individual lessons. When my teacher introduced herself, she announced that she had just completed the Olympic trials herself. She hadn’t made the team, but I was so excited that I was being taught to swim by someone who was nearly a professional in the sport! Turned out that she wasn’t just an Olympic caliber swimmer, she was also a fantastic teacher. During that spring semester, I learned the breast-stroke, the butterfly stroke and the basic freestyle. I learned to breath – which is honestly the absolute hardest part of swimming. And I gained the confidence to know that I wasn’t going to drown – wait, that’s the hardest part. 

The process was long and difficult, but over the course of a few months, I learned to get past my fears and swim. By the time Phelps set his All-Time Record at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, I was swimming like a dolphin (or at least like a guppy). And feeling that old Olympic competitive edge that I’d had as a child.

It is actually still sort of amazing to me that I was able to hold on to my childhood fascination with the Olympic Games and was even able to translate that fascination into action – making the transition to swimmer in my late twenties. My determination to learn how to swim as an adult sparked a similar drive in other family members. A few years after I learned to swim, my mother took up swimming lessons and when she adopted my little sister, it was predetermined that she’d learn to swim as early as possible. 

She’s eight years old now and a decent little swimmer. I’m looking forward to camping out with her during the Rio Olympics to watch Michael Phelps, in what might be his final competitive races. She and I be cheering him on and hopefully I’ll be passing my love of the games and passion for competition to another generation.

*Written by Lindsay S., a proud writer, swimmer, and Redwood resident.