Ritual for Reflective Gatherers: Monthly Reset Day
For years, I’ve been taking an annual resent weekend (a ritual I’ll share more details on another time) and, as inspired by the concept of the Personal Retreat Day from my dear colleague Wende Whitus, I’d been meaning to take a day to reset and renew on a monthly basis.
And I just didn’t do it. I scheduled over it with client meetings, prep, etc.
Until one day last summer I decided to go for it. And it has revolutionized my life.
The idea: take a day (or ½ a day!) with ZERO meetings as a time to reset and recharge.
Check out the key ingredients that make up a typical reset day:
Movement- go for a walk in my favorite park, or maybe a little bike ride around town
Stillness- attend a very gentle yoga class, go for a float (here’s my go-to spot in Denver). If time/funds allow, get a massage
Reflect- look back at the last month and plan for the month ahead. My favorite tool to do this is Hustle + Play which has inspiring reflection and action-planning tools.
Work-Related Project- take an hour or 2 to work on a project that’s been on my radar, but I haven’t had the brain space to dig in amidst the hustle of back-to-back meetings.
Learn- catch up on the Harvard Business Review that I get delivered and am perpetually ‘behind’ on actually reading or listen to a podcast on a topic I want to learn more about (for the past year, it’s been personal finance-related)
Treat- typically a baked good from my local bakery
Gratitude- take 5 minutes to send a quick text or voice memo to share my gratitude for what they bring to my life
If I’m feeling witchy, I’ll pull a few oracle cards. My favorite decks as of late are this and this.
Of note: I acknowledge that I have more scheduling flexibility than many since I work for myself AND when I share this with friends and colleagues who are FTE’s, I share that it does not have to be an entire day. A three or four-hour chunk (which you could do on a weeknight or weekend) is a really juicy amount of time to take that step away from the day-to-day.
YOUR TURN
When are you going to take your next (first?!) reset day! I'd love to serve as an accountability partner, ensuring you actually make it happen.
I typically take mine the last Friday of the month. Feel free me to “join” me then!
