Michael: Relax

The warm morning light
Radiates a comforting
Salve to the spirit.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

As an early retiree I thought with all the free time I have I’d be a gray haired  Superman by now. Well, given my body type, at least a lithe version of the super-hero. But it’s not quite working out that way and I now better understand why these comic wonders are written up as late 20/early 30 types. And the reasons, my friends, are yes - even kind of comical.

Let’s take sleep, that mysterious rejuvenator that rarely shows up on screen except as a sign of impending helplessness. We mortals need it. From what I’ve been reading, if we are indeed going to maximize our physical and mental capabilities, it helps to error on the side of making sure we get a good dose of it. I thought in retirement that would be one of the easy ins to relieving the stresses of life, but it hasn’t quite worked out that way.

Yes, it is nice not tossing and turning all night because I need to get up early to get to work early to prepare for the day. For the 25 years I taught elementary school, I was rarely one of those teachers that stayed late to get things done so I could walk away from school knowing that I was prepped for the next day. No, I was one of those teachers that took advantage of getting out early in the afternoon to go play. The price I paid for that was setting an early alarm, and sometimes losing sleep over the anxiety of working under a tight preparation deadline. I was for 25 years, the first or one of the first to arrive at school to prep for the day. It was a trade-off either way and for the most part I didn’t regret it.

In retirement I was hoping to at least sleep in until the sun rose, which seems natural enough. But it seems 25 years of conditioning can be pretty effective and I’m lucky if I ever sleep past 5. Yes, the restless anxiety aspect of being ill prepared for work has dissipated, but the joy of that has been somewhat mitigated by the need to urinate a few times a night. I suppose if I really wanted to I could try out adult diapers, but I’m not quite there yet.

I am going to bed earlier though and since I’m working out in the morning instead of working and then working out in the afternoon, I’ve been allowing myself an occasional afternoon nap. That was frowned upon in school even though I was fortunate enough to sometimes have students that would’ve actually been fine, or maybe even been better off, if I had been allowed to put my head down for a while instead of taking out my crabbiness on them.

Along with slightly better sleep and guiltless naps, not working is also allowing me to take more of a load off my feet. I’m sure as the years passed by I found time to sit down at work more, but with a room of 30 kids, administrators and parents hovering around, and bells constantly going off, there was just no way I ever came close to getting my feet in the air as much as I do now.

So all in all the physical and mental rest aspect of retirement has been a mixed but for the most part solid plus. Not quite the wavy dream straw hat drink in the hand soothing massage commercial I thought it was going to be, but I do feel it has been somewhat rejuvenating. Though I’m still a long ways away from that lithe Superman I thought I’d be seeing in the mirror by now.