Hello and happy Friday! How are you? It’s been a minute since I’ve checked in, but I wanted to make some space today to hear from you and share some life updates, as well as thank you for your reactions to the app I released Tuesday!

This week was jam-packed and, to be honest, a lot. After working ahead to submit two papers for school at the start of the week, I let my guard down and began to realize I had (drumroll!) more free time than I realized on the horizon. Enter a classic mistake I’ve made time and time again: I immediately filled my fledgling leisure time by taking on more to do, in direct opposition to my own advice. Plus, many of the extras I added were completely unnecessary. I volunteered to host classmates for dinner to watch a movie together for class, took on a huge project for my garden that definitely didn’t have to happen this week, house sat for a neighbor, and just generally filled every spare minute. They were all activities and projects I was happy to do, but yesterday evening, I realized I was completely depleted and in need of an actual break.

I had been looking forward to driving home to Reno today for the long weekend, but canceled my plans at the last minute. As much as I would love to see my parents this weekend, I also just need time to take care of myself and practice (a word I generally hate for its misuse) ✨ self care ✨. I’m not talking about self care in the performative or skincare industry sense, but things that actually take care of me so I can recharge.

On that note, I would love to hear about your extremely specific self care routines. What makes you feel good? What recharges you?