Latest / The Unfiltered Tea with Evie / What Slowing Down in Portugal Taught Me About Burnout, Business and Coming Home Different
Transcript
- Evie Tavares: Welcome back to another solo episode. I'm doing I'm trying this new thing where I just don't overthink stuff and I literally just sit down and do it. Because I feel like especially with the podcast, I would tend to like overthink what I wanted to say. I would overthink the topic that I wanted to talk about, and so much so that it would just put me in what's it called? Procrastination paralysis or something like that, where I just basically wouldn't do it because I was sitting there thinking about it too hard. So I literally just sat down, opened the studio and started recording. And here we are. There are a couple of things that I wanted to chat about. And part of it has to do, I sent out an email every month. I send out like a monthly recap email. And in the recap email for May, I did talk about my trip to Portugal. I also mentioned that a lesson that I learned from the trip was that when I suddenly had all the space to think, not think about work, not think about strategy. not think about, you know, what do I have to do around the house. Like my head was so clear and that never happens. And in that situation, there was a lot of emotions that came up, especially in the north. Like, if you listen to the recap, the north was like probably my favorite part of it. and then when we were leaving the north to go to the south, I got like super emotional because I think that who I was in the north, like Just the purse the version of myself that was in the north of Portugal, was a version of myself that I really haven't seen in a very long time. And I think especially leading up to the trip, things were so crazy busy. Like I was trying to get two months worth of work done in one month on top of packing for a two week vacation, you know, making sure that the dog was looked after, the dog food, we weren't Like all the things that you have to go through before you go on vacation. it was crazy. It was insane. And Dan's work was crazy, like he was popping off, popping off like busy, not like not emotionally. it was wild. And then obviously like kids on top of that. So by the time we got to Portugal, I was very close to burning out before going and I knew that and I was like, you know, just like two more days, three more days, like we're so close. You just have to finish these things and then you're done work for three weeks. And I pushed so hard that by the time we got to Portugal, I was like it just felt like the biggest sigh of relief to just be there and to just like not have to think about any of these things anymore. And to just go day to day Go with the flow, very easy, like slow mornings. Everything that I want at home is what I got in Portugal. And the slow, chill, relaxed version of myself came out. And when we were a few days before we were coming home, I found myself getting really angry that I had let it get to the to that point before we went away that even With or without the trip, things were crazy. And I was letting myself run at such a pace and such a speed that I can't handle long term. And I knew that. And so when we were in the South and I was kind of reflecting on the trip and like before the trip and going home, I was like, I can't go back to that version. Like, and I was mad at myself for even letting myself get to that point. So I was so determined to come back and keep the pace of life, even though it's vacation. Obviously, vacation life is different from from real life. Like I don't need to tell you that. But I remember like driving around Portugal, especially in the north, midweek, and there's people just strolling down the street or standing on the street watching the cars go by, like nowhere to go, nothing to do. again, I know that like probably day-to-day life in Portugal is different than my perception while we were there on vacation. But still, who has time to stand there on the street and watch cars go by? People in Portugal do. And like these weren't just like Older retired people. These were like people middle aged, you know, should be at work and they're just or or they're sitting in the in the cafes. Like every morning we would walk down the cafes. We're full of locals. We were in a very like local it's like a local vacation spot in the north that we were at. Like it's not a big touristy spot and it's where the locals go for like their long weekends. But even during the week, there was a ton of locals just like doing their thing, sitting in the cafes, relaxing and having their cup of coffee in the morning. And I'm like, we're doing this wrong. Like, why why are we not doing this at home? Like, this is what I want. Why is this not translating into our home life? So when we got home, I was very determined, especially as we got back into work and there were a lot of things lined up for work when I got back, but it's I s purposefully spaced things out really well. So it hasn't been too crazy, but even just doing simple things to just slow down, like Like overnight I don't have my phone in my room. That's something I've been doing for I don't know, a year or two now. my phone stays charging in my office or in the kitchen. So since we got home, I've been charging my phone in my office. And before we went away, I would go right into my office as soon as I woke up, pick up my phone, start replying to text messages, whatever. I do have the brick, Which is the the little thing that you tap your phone and it locks your apps. And I still find that incredibly useful. if you want to learn more about that, send me a DM because I do also have an a code for them as well, like a discount code. I'll put it in the show notes as well. but even then I was like picking up my phone, checking text messages. I would delay looking at social media, but not by that much. So now since I've been home. My phone is charging in my office. I don't even go and get it until that initial part of the morning is done. So I've made my cup of tea, the girls have their breakfast, the dog's been fed, like I've had a little moment to breathe and wake up before I'm going and looking at my phone. The other thing that I actually started doing, which is maybe TMI, and it seems so stupid and like simple that it's like, really? But it's true. I had a little sample of a body soap bar from Acre 75. They're a subscription box that you get. it's all local made stuff. It's really cool. Again, I'll put it in the show notes because if you if you haven't heard of them, you have to go check them out. Virginia, who owns it, is so wonderful. I had this little soap. in my bathroom. I didn't put it in my I had I've had it for like a a few months and I didn't put it in my shower. I haven't used it. And I thought like that seems like something kind of like luxurious, slow and like easeful. There's something about using a really nice bar of soap that suddenly appealed to me coming home from our trip. So I've been using it. Sure enough, it makes me slow down. I'm not rushing through my shower. I look forward to it. Like it's something that just like makes me happy in the morning. It's like made of all these really nice ingredients. And it's just almost like taking that extra little moment to do something that I enjoy in the morning has also made a huge difference. And so now you know I'm probably gonna start using bars of soap. I'm sure you really needed to know that. But I think it's just like the idea behind it of having something that slows me down in the morning that I really enjoy that just makes me really sit and be present in the mornings. And that's what that's been doing for me. And that's really exciting for me. The other thing is like now that it's nicer weather, we've got our patio furniture all out, I can like sit outside. after I get my oldest off to school, I can like sit outside, my youngest will play, and I'll like and then I'll be catching up on social media. I'll go on Instagram, catch up on things, check my emails, like whatever that looks like. But I'm doing it outside and just kind of taking it easy and taking it slow. So those are a few things that I started doing since I got home. We've only been home for just over a week. But I already feel like more easeful being at home. I don't feel like I'm go, go, go. I think it's a good time to come back as well. we're getting into summertime where things, you know, people are usually slowing down in summertime. you're spending more time with friends outside, like all these things that kind of just have made it an easy Transition to go from Portugal vacation, this dream vacation to coming home. And it really hit me, it really hit me last night. We have like a free soccer program in our community and so we took our girls there and all of our friends registered their kids as well. So we all met at our house and then walked down to the park for them to do this program. And we had drinks and little thermos mugs or whatever. Like we were like, we brought our blankets because it was a PD day today. So we're like, let's just make a make a night of it. And just the relaxed atmosphere of that, like just being around friends, having a clear head because I'm not so bogged down with work right now, just felt so good again. And I love my work. I love what I do. But I don't want it to get to the point that It's making me go go go because that's not why I started the business. I started the business to have a relaxed life, to not be go, go, go all the time, to not be stressed about work all the time. And so now I feel like I have the tools to make sure that that doesn't happen again and the know how. The other big thing is I'm doing a lot of like mindset work right now through a program that I'm a part of that literally started as soon as I came back. And it's a lot around like building the business that you really desire, along with the life that you really desire and all of that stuff. So everything's gone really hand in hand to solidify the thoughts that I had towards the end of our trip that. when I come home things are gonna be different. Things are gonna look different. I'm not going back to this race of just craziness and doing all these things. I will keep you posted on how this all goes. And if there's any other kind of things that I find to work really well, I'll be sure to share them. honestly, when I started a business, I never would have thought that the personal growth and the mindset and all of these things were things that would be the majority of my business. Like it's such a huge piece of it because I think that you have to become the version of yourself that builds the business that you really want, not the other way around. And that's a lesson that I've learned over and over again and probably will continue to learn as the business grows and as things things go ahead. so yeah, hopefully this made sense and hopefully it resonated and we're in the season of just hitting record and saying the things and posting it anyway. so yeah, let me know your thoughts. My DMs are always open and I will see you in the next one.