Oh hey there! Steve and I just arrived back from a glorious three days off where we gave ourselves and our lil’ baby Vortex some downtime to breathe and chill, which is exactly what we’re going to chat about. As an entrepreneur, creative dude, and often-distracted over-thinker (look, a squirrel!), downtime is pretty big challenge for me – which is especially hilarious considering we built a business around downtime via self care – so today I want to talk about what I’ve learned about the importance of doing absolutely nothing! Let’s do it!… or not…

hurry up and relax

We love being the place where people come to relax, de-stress and reconnect with themselves. And while Vortex is a magical place that many rely on as a sweet escape from the outside world, it’s our whole world and sometimes we need a sweet escape to the outside world.

That’s why we’d been looking forward to what is now an annual tradition: a quick trip to the middle of nowhere for a few days at a beautiful cottage on a river with a rolling landscape of snow-covered trees.

We had a 4:00 check-in, which I was well aware of while I white-knuckled it as Steve navigated through a few snow squalls, giving us an ETA of 4:27. There was a sense of urgency where I felt like every minute we weren’t there we were missing time to relax – which was another clear signal that I was in desperate need of some downtime.

I was reminded this week how often I’m actually working or thinking about work – While we’re quite happy operating our lil’ haven of health and wellness, we’re always doing something. And it was time to do nothing.

In no time I was laying around motionless, like the business books I said I’d read but didn’t even make it out of my bag.

My initial plan was to be “passively productive”, meaning I would listen to an audiobook, or chip away at some social media ideas. I even brought all of my camera equipment in case we decided to shoot some content. That’s so sweet.

Turns out what needed to happen was lazy mornings, delicious brunches, hot tub marketing meetings, movie marathons and puppy playtime.

Despite my usual propensity for keeping busy, I leaned in hard and literally did nothing. Special thanks to Julia Roberts and Richard Gere for kicking off the first of five RomComs we would watch over the course of two days.

Case in point:

Sometimes self care means doing something.
And sometimes it means doing nothing.

There is an art to doing nothing. It’s a beautiful, passive dance of presence and patience… and it’s also laying in one position and moving only to go pee or get food.

Let’s be real: it can be deeply restorative to do f!#$ all!

Throughout our 3 days off I would catch myself wondering if I should be doing something…even though the plan was to relax. It started to become a challenge not to feel a bit guilty.

Now, after careful reflection I’ve decided…that’s so dumb.

guilt be gone

Our whole vibe is about the importance of self care and making the time to recharge your own battery – “self care isn’t selfish” etc. – it turns out, sometimes even I need to be reminded of that.

Due to the fact that I’m constantly thinking about work, what’s next, and what’s on my never-ending “to do” list – sometimes it’s hard not to see a break from work as a window of opportunity to “be productive” and do more work.

I’ve learned that sometimes you just need to give yourself a permission slip to let go of the controls, shift into autopilot and just coast for a minute. In the grand scheme of things, the downtime is over in no time and you’re back in the flow of day-to-day life… but with some much needed rest time under your belt.

Even though I know this, I would hover in moments of feeling torn whether I should be more productive and make the most of the time away from the studio, but Steve reminded me of how much and how hard I work and that I need to practice what I preach and chill out.

I was lucky to move from guilt and find myself in moments of extreme gratitude – and that’s a much better feeling. Whether I was enjoying the sun and snow with my adorably overjoyed pooch, Toby, or having a star-gazing hot tub party with my business partner, best friend, and husband (those are all the same person, FYI, not 3 dudes), I certainly got a lot out of doing nothing.

With all we have on our to-do lists, sometimes the most important thing we need to do rest. So even though I was just staring out the window, catching up with Sandra Bullock, or mindlessly playing on my iPad like an 8 year old on a road trip, the break from being constantly in motion allowed me to get a lot of rest done.

Now, ain’t that productive.

unplug and power on

In the same way you sometimes need to unplug and reset your modem when the signal is weak, us humans require a similar unplugging. We’re not designed to just keep on going and going like the Energizer Bunny from the 90’s. It’s 2024 and it’s time to fully acknowledge the fact that – regardless of how blessed and fortunate we are – on an energetic level life is constantly kicking the $#!% out of us.

This is why we need to love ourselves enough to plan for downtime. Because it’s time to accept that we need it. And no – rest does not make you weak. Taking time to to restore yourself doesn’t make you a selfish person, it makes you a responsible one .

And by the way – we all deserve to feel good – so no more worthiness issues when it comes to self care, please.

As the wheel of the world keeps spinning, we owe it to ourselves to put on the breaks, recharge our battery, then power on again and maintain the momentum of our lives, loaded with enough energy to go out and give our best to the world.

And, wouldn’t you know, that just happens to be the very reason why we created Vortex.