A Manageable Dose of Escape
Getting away isn’t necessarily a physical shift in my eyes. Often within my environment I’ve learned to escape by seeking out an alternative activity to replenish any feelings of worry, stress or flight. I can be around people that I enjoy bowling with or attending a rock concert when I need to escape from the challenges of raising my two adopted daughters. If I’m unable to leave the home, escape can mean searching out the right book or a meaningful song. I’ve even been known to throw myself into chores around the house, mysteriously cleaning, washing dishes, folding my laundry or cooking when I feel that my attitude needs to escape my brain and be replaced with re-direction.
There’s no one specific way I handle escape- I just feel a freeing sense of calmness when I’m able to move my mind from a negative to a positive energy field. Visualization and deep breathing give my brain a chance to escape too- when I awake and when I go to sleep I want to feel that I can tackle each day properly and learn to not let the problems of the world weigh me down into dreamland.
Escape is not running away from your problems- it’s only a temporary reprieve to give your mind, body and spirit a chance to refuel, refocus and then come back to the world with a flood of fresh ideas and insights. With my commitments to work, to my family, to my friends, to the outside people that touch my lives- I’ve learned that spontaneous escapes are few and far between. Each environment I’m in during the day allows a certain escape that I cherish- and there are other days where I’m fully 100% committed to facing whatever comes my way, with no plan to daydream or run away physically to a new destination.
By pursuing a wide variety of hobbies and interests, I channel any need for escape in proper proportions. My wife understands that sometimes I wish to be alone, or I wish to go to my favorite book store, or that I need to bowl in a special tournament for a weekend. We set up times for our parents and trusted friends to watch our children so we can escape for a date night- re-living our early years of marriage before children. When you build in planned times for escape, the rewards are emotional relief, personal happiness and a broader sense of looking within to achieve more in your sphere of influence.
You can be mindful when you want to escape to mindlessness. I’ve learned to use escape in smaller proportions as I’ve grown older- it should be a tool within your chest of treasures, not a crutch that you need daily to avoid your responsibilities. Remember the times in life when you lost yourself in a great book, or the creation of a favorite art, even the time when you played in the zone for the best game of your career. Bottle that feeling and you can re-create it in your time of special need.
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I love the part about escaping these days being in “smaller proportions”. How true. And yet almost more rewarding in a way because like you say it’s a mental and psychological escape and a chance to refuel for others who need you. Gotcha.
as a fellow parent, i’m so digging the “planned escape” method. as someone once told me, we all do what we have to do to survive. planned escape might just be one of those things, for parents. and by “might just be” i mean Is. Definitely. One. of those Things.