Kid-Free Recharge Recipe

I returned home with a shining heart and spirit today after a rare kid-free morning. When I got back, my kids seemed absolutely adorable, my husband irresistible, and I didn't even care the house was a mess.

I don't always feel this way after some alone time. A lot of the time I feel completely overwhelmed by all the stuff I could get done. Easily, I get locked in the mind-set that kid-free time is my one little window to run all those errands without carting two kids around, or attend to all those cleaning and organizing projects I have been putting off.

Today was different. I knew I needed to recharge or I would be a cesspool of irritability and distraction all weekend.

It's funny. Now that I am a mother, what I need to recharge and nourish my spirit is much different then what I needed as single city working gal. Then, it was active yoga to balance my sedentary job, and deep meditation to balance my overworked mind. And maybe a little social time out on the town.

Today, it was:

• Teaching a prenatal yoga class to 12 very grateful moms;
• Loosing myself one-pointedly, blissfully, and indulgently in eating as much Indian buffet food as I could possibly manage - alone without any distraction;
• Walking around downtown on a beautiful sunny day taking in the world.

Maybe it isn't that different. But it feels so different. Being a mom has opened me up to the benefits and rewards of serving and helping others. I do that now as a mom, but it is a nice escape to connect to other mothers or adults when I teach.

Connecting to others in a positive way leaves me jazzed up on shakti.

I know I need to do yoga too, but these days, it rarely leaves me feeling completely nourished. I am a point in my practice that I am digging a lot of stuff up, and dealing with battling my ego. Facing my true self full force is not always pretty. After struggling with the endless demands of motherhood, battling myself on the mat adds to the insult.

But teaching, ahh, that is a sweet piece of cake. Speaking of eating...

Only a mom with young kids could fully appreciate the sweet bliss of indulging one-pointedly in a bottomless assortment of divine food.

At home, I am usually the last to sit down and when I do, I am conscious of creating good family connection time by talking, for better or worse. So I rarely taste a bite of my food. I love food. I rarely feel nourished and full after eating, and it is no wonder why.

So it would appear that my recipe for bliss in my kid-free time is:

EAT, TEACH, WALK outside.

What is your recipe? Take a moment to think about it. Key thing to remember here is to: KEEP IT SIMPLE. Do less, be more.

Once you have an idea, take time to try it out. Feel free to experiment, or change it up.

Add in a pinch of creativity, a dash of love-making, or a hint of spontaneous skinny dipping in the ocean.

Whatever will bring you back deeply smiling from the inside.

Photo and great article on Eight Ways to Recharge Your Spirit, here.