Sunny Day Therapy's Blog- Helping Children & Caregivers Shine, Do, and Thrive

For me, a lazy Saturday means organizing the back of my car and my work folders.  I used to hate cleaning, but now I look forward to the days when I can sort because that means that everything else is done.  Sorting my car is always the last step towards getting my life in order.  Cleaning is a different kind of work, a break from routine; my husband has opened my mind to this perspective.  It’s a grand way to look at tidiness.

For me, a lazy Saturday usually means completing a few hours of paperwork in the morning.  Then, I have my whole weekend before me to relax, to write, and do whatever strikes my fancy.  I feel proud of myself when I finish my work on Saturday morning because then I can commit myself to the very important task of BEING LAZY. I feel super happy when everything is clean and there is nothing else to be done.

For a person who is on the go all the time and who likes being productive, being lazy doesn’t come easy.  I find myself exploring phD programs online for fun, looking up courses to take, researching literary agencies, listening to books on tape, exercising, and researching ideas for my next vacation.  Perhaps being lazy is not doing nothing but having the freedom to do what I want to do?  Perhaps being busy helps me appreciate the opportunity to be lazy when it occurs?

A lot of good work can come out of being lazy- having the opportunity to do things for yourself because you find them meaningful and not because you have to do them for work or for a deadline.  Being lazy allows one the opportunity to not take oneself seriously… and sometimes that is what artists need to make their work happen.

“The best time to start a book is when you least expect to, or when you don’t have time to. Don’t take it seriously, just write it.” – Elmore Leonard

Occupational therapy is about helping people find valued occupations – meaningful activities to help them heal and grow.  When one finds an occupation that they love, the goal is to create a “FLOW” experience in which the person becomes so entrenched in their occupation that they are oblivious to time, pain, and reality.  Writers strive to create through their fiction the same “flow” experience for readers.

Whatever your lazy Saturday looks like, hope that you find your “flow.”  I hope that it takes you where you want to be and you enjoy being there.  I hope that today you find a break from the ordinary and become lost in the extraordinary experience of possibility.  That is what writing does for me- helps me experience possibilities and open up my mind to new ways to find humor, to relax, and to grapple life’s meaning.