When the mind finally catches up
For the first time in my life, I experienced the full force of jet lag. Exhausted, funny sleep schedules very random eating patterns, super high energy peaks at the wrong times and unexpected watery eyed lulls. How boring. If you’ve experienced it then I’m sure you can relate, but in all my years of travel, I’ve never had jet lag so it really threw me. I was also annoyed because I did the right things, drank heaps of water on the flight over, got some Vitamin D as soon as I arrived, didn’t sleep when I wasn’t meant to. But unfortunately, my body had different plans, so I had to let it do its thang. But gurl did her thang for over a week! So, during that time all I could do was try to not force any type of productivity, instead just wander and explore and give myself a break. I was conscious of trying to eat the right things and rest whenever I needed to. Again, boring but I did it because news flash, jet lag sucks.
Unfortunately, New York isn’t named the ‘city that doesn’t sleep’ because everyone’s on permanent jet lag, it’s because there is so much stimulation and exciting activity that you genuinely don’t want to miss a moment. This city does not sit well with the fomo in me and no matter how hard I tried I wasn’t getting into any kind of routine.
After more than a week I did finally somewhat balance out and was able to start functioning like a bit of a human, and I started getting some work done and going on more exciting adventures. But then, my mind caught up to my body. It seemed to be on an even bigger jet lag. About ten days after I arrived my mind went into overdrive. Asking me all the questions I wasn’t keen to answer (nosey bugger) and sending me into a bit of a tizz. I know that’s the point of travel, to have the space or time to let your mind do some heavy lifting that it often doesn’t want to do while it’s filled with normal life. It’s just hard when you’re far from home and far from going home. I think one of the hardest parts of travelling is not doing enough physical exercise aside from daily walking. It may also play a role in why I’m slightly less energised, and my appetite isn’t as big (I do a lot of high-intensity training at home) but it also means I don’t have that release. I walk eryyyywhere in NY as far as I can, but it’s not the level of release my body and mind is used to. So no surprises I had a mini one day meltdown.
So I called a friend and talked it out, I ate some comfort food (cue Avo on toast), put myself in a positive but not hectic environment and then found a random free yoga class to do. If you look hard enough, there’s lots of free stuff on offer in this city. My day of nourishment really helped and now both my body and mind are in sync again, and ready to do the thinking required to ensure I grow and learn and challenge myself over the next three months.
PS: The avo on toast was ridiculously delicious! It was from Citizens of Chelsea which I genuinely stumbled across by accident and then quickly worked out was an Aussie cafe. Ah well.
