THOUGHT CATALOG | Don't Let Anyone Make You Feel Bad About The Ways You Choose To Relax
Everyone needs their own way to chill out and recharge when they’re not working.
Maybe it’s wine or reality TV or flipping through Facebook for two hours.
Maybe it’s canceling brunch plans because you’d rather catch up on laundry.
Maybe it’s writing or reading or staying up-to-date on celebrity gossip. Maybe it’s re-watching Gossip Girl and appreciating the costumes, but being smart enough to know you can’t afford to live in New York, you can’t treat people like shit, and you aren’t in high school anymore.
Maybe it’s food. Maybe it’s smoking pot.
Maybe it’s cleaning your whole house or socializing with your favorite people or binging on New Girl with no pants on.
Maybe it’s going to the gym.
Maybe it’s smoking cigarettes!
Maybe it’s staring at your iPhone for an hour or shopping for toiletries on Amazon.com.
Maybe it’s cuddling on the couch with your partner and not seeing your other friends for a couple of weeks.
Maybe it’s seeing live music.
Maybe it’s playing Solitaire on your computer! Outdated, sure, but this is a no-judgment zone!
Maybe it’s spending $38 on Thai Food on Sunday, because you’re hung over, and fuck it, they deliver.
Maybe it’s your beauty routine. Maybe your vanity is a form of art. Curated eyebrows and neon lipstick and your ever-evolving personal style. Art is art. Get off me, bro.
Maybe it’s gossiping lightly about people you know.
Maybe it’s taking Advil PM – or drinking chamomile tea if you prefer a more natural tranquilizer – in order to get some sleep. Maybe it’s counting calories or hitting 10,000 steps on your pedometer.
Maybe you don’t have any notable hobbies and you just like drinking and social media and The Jersey Shore. That’s cool too. It doesn’t mean you’re not smart. It doesn’t mean you don’t have depth. And it doesn’t mean your opinions don’t count.
Maybe it’s 50 Shades of Grey. Be mainstream. Relax like a basic bitch. Or break the mold. Do you, princess, Whatevs.
Maybe it’s turning your phone off for a few hours. Maybe it’s going the bar.
Maybe it’s getting out in nature, or taking a perfect selfie or shopping. Maybe it’s watching porn – I don’t know your life.
Shit, maybe it’s all of these things.
I hope it’s some of these things.
What I’m trying to say is, I hope you use some healthy methods and I hope you try some methods that don’t enrich your brain at all. I hope you work hard but have reasonable time off and are proud of how you spend your free time. I hope you don’t feel bad about it.
I hope you take a break from work to eat your favorite snack and check social media and take a Buzzfeed quiz, once in a while.
Maybe you relax in cheesy, more obvious ways like drinking tea, lighting candles, or taking a bath.
Maybe it’s reading young adult books about teenage vampires. Maybe it’s Googling ‘all the things’. Maybe it’s karaoke. Maybe it’s swiping through your Tinder app just to see who’s within a couple miles of you, with no real intention of meeting up with people.
Maybe you still watch Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy every weeknight and shout the answers at your TV.
Maybe it’s packing your lunch and laying out your work clothes for the next day, like a true Type-A nerd.
Maybe it’s going for a walk while listening to the Serial Podcast for the second time…this time trying not to be so romanticized by Adnon.
Maybe it’s your Trivia Crack app. (And maybe you finally paid $2.99 for the add-free version so you can really relax.)
Maybe it’s playing violent video games. Maybe it’s watching a Real Housewives of New Jersey marathon. Being entertained by these things doesn’t mean you want to steal cars or be a bad mother with a ghost-written memoir. It doesn’t mean anything.
Introvert, extrovert…we all recharge in our own way.
Maybe it’s using hashtags that no one’s actually searching for, like #fun and #blessed. Social media attention is a perfectly reasonable way to relax and give yourself a ‘lil confidence boost, no matter what those old farts say.
It’s totally okay and totally your business, you hear me? We all have vices. I suggest we pick our battles and choose the vices we need in order to relax and get back to work feeling refreshed when duty calls.
There’s a lot of sad, messed up, confusing shit going on in the world. Keep up on that, but keep up with the Kardashians too, if you like. Not everything you do needs to enrich your mind.
What chu know ‘bout work/life balance?
