I slowly crawl onto the couch curling my legs under me, balling into the smallest horizontal version of myself. I exhale. Long and slow and loud. My chest releases; drops a little. The throbbing in the base of my neck subsides. I inhale deeply, dragging the air deep.

With my head pressed against the softness of the couch, I can hear my heart beat. The air enters and escapes my lungs. And the tick of the clock that drives me crazy in the middle of the night ticks and tocks. Minutes sweeping by as I continue to do nothing but breathe.

This is living.

This is being alive and busy, tired but excited for what’s to come. This is also why you buy really nice couches. Haha. The day streams past my eyes. I remember the things there are to do, the calls to make, the emails to send and the things to do. But I don’t move, I breathe.

Have you ever seen a kid do that? Curl into a ball and breathe until life seems right again. I have. Those kids, they sure have things worked out. Genius little things. There’s a release in that and in the breathing that you can’t get from a million deep breaths taken at your desk or in the car.

It’s the abandon of it.

And before you worry, I’m okay. More than okay actually. There’s a lot of really exciting things happening for me at the moment and sometimes the weight of that is heavy. I know myself well enough to know when to put it down. Thirty-three years and I finally nailed that one.

Sometimes though, you just have to curl in a ball and breathe before you get back up, get out there and go for it. What’s your thing? Do you have a way to wind down, zone out or recharge? I’d love to hear about it.

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