Do you know how to rest as a writer?

 My husband and I took a late 25th anniversary trip for just the two of us. We went to Big Island, Hawai'i and loved our time there. We hiked in rainforests, admired waterfalls, drove all over the island in search of historical sites, beautiful vistas upon beautiful vistas, great food, and beaches to enjoy for short bits of time. We visited the new caldera of the Hawai'i Volcanic National Park (we saw it back in 2011 before the 2018 lava flow) and walked through the lava tubes again (old ones, not the recent ones).

My husband has reddish blonde hair and comes from a red-headed family so we remembered to use sunscreen, wear sun shirts, and get into the shade as much as possible. Other than the day we stayed out at a beach for nearly five hours, we managed to keep our skin safe. (We know a few people who have suffered from skin cancer, so we take this pretty seriously). 

We loved all of it, and we loved spending time with just each other. Since we were there at the beginning of the slow season, there were no crowds and we managed a good six feet or more distance from most people other than when we ate out and when we were on the plane (masked up with plenty of checks for COVID beforehand). Even when we ate out, we were separated via table distance and we ate outdoors every single time because...Hawai'i.

Given all of that, we were sad and slightly worried to learn that Hawai'i like many other places has an upswing of case numbers. Masks were on everywhere, and we did our best to use sanitizers and hand soap as often as we could. 

If you show up in Hawai'i these days, you won't get greeted with leis and alohas. You will get greeted by burly tall National Guardsmen doing temperature checks. If you have a temp, you will get quarantined immediately. 

So, it was travel during CoVID which is slightly less fun than the old-fashioned way, but we enjoyed ourselves and remembered how to rest. My husband doesn't rest well, and I struggle with it, too, so it took a bit to remember how.

What rest looks like to me:

• Taking time off from regularly scheduled work, volunteering, and even social media contact.
• Writing only in my journal or for fun/silly projects. 
• Not taking phone calls from anyone other than family members, and even limiting those.
• Putting down the phone, or at least only using it a little. (This was tough for me.)
• Getting outside.
• Taking deep breaths of fresh air (not next to crowds).
• Sleeping in.
• Watching old movies on TV we would never watch at home.
• Exercise outside - hiking, walking, bicycling, swimming, etc. (I'm not in great shape, but I still like to move.)
• Saving lots of room for dessert at restaurants by splitting entrées.
• Water elements are always the best (for me). I like waterfalls, lakes, rivers, snow, ice, and the ocean. Since I did eat some shave ice, I'm going to say I managed to enjoy all but one of these types of water on the trip. I even like rain and we got some of that, too. 
• If I can, I like to travel. If I can't, I like to find new places to walk or just be outside.
• Taking photos because I like to take photos. 

I'm not done editing most of the photos from the "good" camera, but I do have some I already shared from my phone on Instagram.

How do you rest?

And when?

It was really odd to me to rest less than a month before a book release, but I managed to turn off that part of my brain for the trip and when I came back, I felt refreshed and ready to get to work. If you signed up for a guest post or shout-out, you will be getting an email soon.

If you would like to help with my book release and didn't already sign up, email me at tyreantigger (at) gmail (dot) com - it's happening from October 4-13.

Many thanks to those who have signed up!