Meditation: Balance, End the Day Length: 5 minutes Where: In Bed, Los Angeles How It Felt: Relaaaxing...
Five days ’til Mexico! This week is all about getting back to life.
I’ve been slowly cleaning house over the past year- mentally, emotionally, and literally- preparing for a time when life would pick up again, so I could be better and more ready than I ever was before. Yesterday, I did something huge:
I deleted Animal Crossing from my phone!
Now, you may be one of those snobs that thinks playing games is for kids, but then you’ve probably never played Animal Crossing. Or, you’re like my husband, who doesn’t get it and once said, “It’s just doing things! I do things all day!”
Which is fair.
Listen, I never got the Switch! I knew I would be done for if I did, despite my sisters’ urging me to get one. I got so addicted to the original AC when it came out, I knew I needed to keep my game pocket sized. That feeling where everything is cute and you’re just vibing, man. So fantastic. Such temptation.
However, ACPC kept my stress levels down, like way down, during that lockdown. It was nice to have clear goals, things to do day after day, when my brain couldn’t process much else or feel creative. More importantly, it kept me from doom scrolling the news or fight scrolling Facebook during that miserable election.
Not a single villager had a racist cult flag flying! It was lovely.
Now, though, I no longer have an hour or more built into each day to dress and chat with a bunch of cute animals. Well, my cat. But that’s different.
It was honestly super freeing. I remember when one of my sisters deleted it awhile ago and she said, “I feel like I have my life back!” It’s like that now. Definitely.
I’m sharing this because I got a little tired and depressed yesterday and, despite having many, many things I wanted to get done, I did about six things and then played Animal Crossing all day. Which is insane. And, suddenly, it was 11pm, and I knew it was time.
It was just…time.
Goodbye, cute island and Goliath frog I could never catch! Goodbye, full catalog I worked so hard to achieve! Goodbye, Happy Homeroom classes, which I maxed out a few days ago and felt so proud about! Goodbye, duplicate fortune cookies that made me crazy!
Goodbye!
It’s a great game if you need to decompress, don’t get me wrong. It’s a terrible game if you need to fill your days with… like, being productive.
So, my meditation came at night. I thought about a sleep session for a moment, then decided to do another one of the “Before Sleep” options on the Balance app, since I liked the one I did the other day so much. This one was called “End of Day,” and it was just listening to a soothing voice and watching a sun slowly… set… over… the water…
So peaceful.
In just five short minutes my breath was much slower and my eyes felt heavy. According to the guide, this is meant to be done an hour before bed, at which point you should put down your phone for the night.
Um, ok. That sounds super adult and healthy, but baby steps. I deleted the game, I’m working on it.
I was not done with my phone for the night.
You watch this little sun go down… down… down… and you’re supposed to tap the screen when it disappears fully under the water. Then, you can just focus on this super chill screen as long as you want. I did it for about a minute. It was super relaxing.
This is a really aesthetically pleasing app in a lot of ways, and I’m still super happy I found it! It doesn’t offer a ton of options, but I’m really enjoying what it does have. I probably wouldn’t have paid for it considering how many other apps I already have for meditating, but I’m definitely grateful they offered a free year!
Now, off to use my vast surplus of free time to, like… do cool stuff, probably? Let’s see! Pretty excited!
My Year of Meditation 