How to Make Summer Feel Like Summer Again

Summer has a way of slipping by before we ever feel like we're actually in it. This week, I'm sharing a postpartum life update, how sleep training has completely changed our house (for the better!), the shows I've been loving lately, and a bit of a spiral about why summer doesn't seem to "summer" the way it used to.

I keep coming back to this idea of chronic not-enough-ness - that feeling that we're not making enough memories, not getting outside enough, not soaking up the season enough. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, we forgot how to be bored, how to slow down, and how to let an ordinary Tuesday be enough.

So this episode is really just me talking through a few simple ways we can reclaim a little of that carefree feeling! 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome into Hey Hannah. Happy Wednesday, everyone. I hope everyone's having a fantastic week. It dawned on me that this is the last week of July. I feel like summer is truly just beginning. I know I'm not alone in this. Like, oh my gosh, I can't believe in Florida, end of July means back to school. Like, school season is upon us. But here in the Midwest, everyone still has the entire month of August. So I'm trying to adapt that same mentality. I'm not going back to school. Like, I don't know why I have this sort of anxiety, but I do. End of summer approaches and I get anxious for no reason whatsoever. Do you guys feel that way when you walk through Walmart or Target? I'm not in the eighth grade. I'm not going back to school. But for some reason, seeing all of the back to school rows and rows of crap, it gives me such PTSD. I have to remind myself that I haven't been in that position in decades. But yeah, for some reason, I see those giant Crayola boxes, the rows and rows of binders and notebooks and folders, and I immediately get a pit in my stomach. Like, oh. Going back to school shopping was the worst. But what's funny is now as a parent, I'm actually really looking forward to that. I think it'll be so fun. And I have elementary school to look forward to. That's, you know, that's such a sweet time. I'm sure by the time my kid gets to high school, I'm gonna be a little over it. I've remember my mom being so over the entire process. Every teacher, does that still happen where like every teacher has a different list of things that you need? So you have to buy a three-ring binder for math class, but then a two-ring binder for reading class, and that's just skimming the surface. There's like you need a composition notebook for that one class, then you need a spiral notebook for the other class, and three brand new pencils. They have to be brand new. Like I remember it being so detailed, and every teacher needed different things. And my mom, having three kids, was always like done. We'd be in staples and we were all just in bad moods. But I guess those are the days before Amazon. Do people still do the full back to school shopping? In my heyday, that was the only reason why we went to Staples was back to school. And every year we went and stood in line, and it was crazy. You had to like fight people to get the last purple notebook. Oh man. Honestly, just thinking about it gives me such a pit. I'm sure it's much easier these days with Amazon. You can just click what you need and you'll probably get a few extras, right? Someone fill me in, some high school parent out there, let me know the process of this. And if I'm totally dating myself, I'm sure I am. A quick update: last time I talked to you guys, Peter and I were just coming off of our first weekend of official sleep training. And oh my gosh, I don't even want to get into the weeds of it all. But like I've basically learned that quote unquote sleep training as a term is a new thing, even though the process is incredibly old. Nowadays, all that means is finding a program that works for you and your family in order to help your baby sleep through the night. There's a lot of different methods. They're all similar in some capacity if you're sleep training, period. Nevertheless, we tried it last weekend. That's when we started it, and it's been working. I feel like I've come out of a fog. The past few months, I have felt like you're just in survival mode, you know? And now, not only am I sleeping more hours, like just I'm sleeping more throughout the night in general. So I wake up feeling like a normal human. Not only do I see a difference in myself, but Peter and I see a difference in our baby. Like, what a difference. Oh my gosh. So I'm here to report that sleep training works. Now, do we have still some hiccups with the process? Of course. She's still young. She's like four and a half months right now. Technically, you're supposed to wait till five months, but we discussed it with our pediatrician and she agreed that we were ready. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The short version of the story is that it's working and that our entire house, our entire family is sleeping better. We're all a bit happier in the mornings. But yeah, we still have a few hiccups. Uh, she still wakes up just a few times in the night, but it's hard because I'm nursing. This baby still will not take a bottle. So I am exclusively breastfeeding, unintentionally, exclusively breastfeeding, by the way. I see so many people online talking about how like their goal was always to exclusively breastfeed. No, no, no, not me. I never really thought about it. Like I never was like, oh, I'm gonna try to pump at this time and I give her bottles at this time. I just figured we would ebb and flow out of the boob and go into the bottle. But like, no, she doesn't want it. She really doesn't want it. I try every day. People come in and they're like, well, have you tried this one? And have you tried that one? Like, no, no, no. Take a beat. I've tried it all. I've really tried it all. Except I have not spoken to an actual lactation consultant, which I feel like has to be my next thing because there's gotta be some like weird woo-woo, almost like acupuncture type stuff that I can do to my child to have her take a bottle. I'm not gonna actually give her acupuncture, but you know what I mean. I've seen these videos where they you're like holding their mouth in a certain way when they take the bottle, and that's what helps. Whatever the heck. I'm eventually gonna have to really hone in on that. But right now, our focus has been sleeping, and so far, so good. We're still in the thick of the sleep training process. We're supposed to have two weeks of doing a certain routine, so we're still doing it. So yeah, my two hiccups with sleep training are that number one, she is still waking up throughout the night a little bit, and I have to let her cry it out a teeny bit during the night, which is really, really tough. But it's definitely getting easier. And it's again, it's hard because I'm nursing. So I have to wake her up at certain points right now because she's still little and I still need to feed her. So sometimes her body wakes up naturally and it's like not the right time, and I can't pick her out of her crib yet, whatever. It's a whole science to this thing. My second qualm with my sleep training right now is that nine times out of 10, she's still taking a pretty long time to fall asleep at night. And it's the saddest thing in the world. Like, really, it makes me want to throw myself on the floor and have a temper tantrum out of just pure stress and anxiety. That's the process of like putting your baby down to sleep and then hearing them cry it out. And it's a gentle process. I go and check on her every five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and then that's it. Like max time that I don't go in that room is 15 minutes. And most of the time we make it even shorter. But yeah, it's like any mom knows. Oh my God, if you've done sleep training, it's the most daunting task is walking out of that room while your baby is crying. But you guys, I bring you good news of great joy because last night I put her down and no joke, I put her down at 7.05. I wrote this down on my notes app. By 7.08, she was asleep. Peter and I started jumping, we started jumping around downstairs. We were so excited. But the problem occurred because she woke up naturally at like 10:30, which is when I've been waking her up to feed her. She woke up naturally at 10:30 and I had to let her cry it out. And oh my God, she took so long to cry it out. It was like such a journey. So yeah, there are still some bumps in the road with us and the whole sleep training thing. I've been giving like full updates about this on my TikTok. So if you are so bored, I'm so sorry. I'm done talking about it now. But if you want more information, play by plays, it's on my TikTok. Anyways, okay. Moving on. What else can we talk about? Quick TV update. I started Elle. And I only watched the first episode, but I totally understand why everyone's liking this show right now. It has those nostalgic 90s vibes, which is super fun to watch. I love seeing the fashion, the cars in the background and all of that. But secondly, the actress that's playing Elle is so good at acting like Reese Witherspoon, acting like Elle. It's so fun to watch because she really, really nails it. And then, of course, I did a deep dive on this actress. She's so cute. I saw her like original audition tape, and I watched the video where Reese Witherspoon told her she was getting the part of L. Like, oh my gosh, it must be so cool to have your life totally change for a role that is so iconic in pop culture in general. But yeah, she does a really good job of impersonating Elle and she comes off super likable. And the show is very girly and cute. And I'm reminded on how much I liked Elle's personality in the actual movie. The movie has become sort of like such a pop culture phenomenon that, like, I forget how I felt watching the movie initially, like I was a kid, right? And then you watch the show Elle and you're like, oh yeah, I forgot I liked Elle as a person. I didn't just watch this movie because the movie was nostalgic and iconic. She's just optimistic and super kind. Like there's parts of her, there are certain scenes, even in the first episode, where she's correcting something or she's doing something where I'm like, oh my God, that would normally be awkward for a high schooler to do that. And she's doing it. Is she in high school? I have no idea. I actually think she's in college. Whatever. The character is just super likable and weirdly admirable in a few ways. But yeah, the show, I do think I'll keep watching the show because it's exactly what the doctor ordered for me in postpartum months. You know, it's like light, fluffy, fun. It doesn't ask too much of me emotionally, which is what I need. And it's just easy to throw on. It seems like a little optimistic girly pop show. And I love that. I've heard a lot of really good reviews from it too. Like I know people are loving it. So yeah. By the way, it's also still on my to-do list to finish that dang show off campus. I started it and I immediately was like a little eye rolling, and I know everybody's obsessed with it. Oh my gosh, when I said on Instagram that I wasn't watching it, people were freaking coming for me. You know, you know what it is? I just missed the summer I turned pretty. To me, that was such a relatable teenage show. Whereas off campus, like her, you guys, like the very first scene is her singing and dancing with a freaking mop in the locker room. Like, no way. No, you're not doing that. Immediately, no. Like, immediately I'm watching it and I'm like, no way would you do that. If you were that age and you were cleaning a men's locker room, like of the cute boys team, you wouldn't be like singing and dancing. I don't know. I just like it seemed so unbelievable to me that I couldn't vibe. Whereas the summer I turned pretty, I always say the first episode showed her in like an awkward one piece speedo bathing suit with her family friends who are all like suddenly cute boys, even though she's grown up with them. To me, that was so relatable. We've all been there. You know, you go to a pool party and you realize like everyone's already outgrown the awkward speedo one piece and you're still in it, and you're like, oh no, I thought I was still a kid. I guess I have to act like I'm not. Anyways, I will also try to continue the journey of off campus, but um, it was cute and fun to watch. I did enjoy the characters. I just thought it was a little too like bold. Like everybody was just acting in ways they wouldn't normally act. And sometimes I just can't get past it. I can't get past something being so unrealistic for an age group. Oh my God, like that guy turning around and immediately showing her him in the shower. I just was like, in what world, like truly in what world, in what world would she A be dancing and singing all around a locker room bathroom with no cares in the world, like no thought about looking stupid or ridiculous. But then also on his side, in what world would he turn and be like, hey, look at me? I can't, I can't, I can't get out of my own way with that show. But I'm gonna try, mark my words, I'm gonna try. So those are the two shows that I have sort of been watching, keeping an eye on. The show that I've really been watching that I've been obsessed with is um old episodes of Real Housewives of New York. If you are in a bit of a lull in life, if you're looking for a laugh, please go watch season seven of Real Housewives of New York. If you've never seen Real Housewives of New York, by the way, it's actually an excellent place to begin because they just dropped the new season trailer for Real Housewives of New York. And Carol Radswell, one of the main cast members of season seven, is coming back, and she's the main character of whatever the heck season they're on right now. Okay, so season seven, it's not her first season, but it's a great season for her. It's when her and Bethany become close. I talked about this in my last episode, but it's Dorinda Medley's first season. Ramona Singer's going through a breakup. Bethany has just returned and is getting to know all of the women. Carol is dating the chef she met at Luann's party. Sonia's talking about her yachts and how she used to party with John John Kennedy, and she's talking about her Sonia Morgan collection. It's just such primetime television. It is incredible. So, yeah, that's where I've really been spending my time. If I'm watching TV, I'm in that world. I don't even know what year it took place. Let's see, season seven. Hold on. I'm looking this up. Oh, it's 2015. What a freaking time. 2015 was a great year. All the women are still wearing skinny jeans and like giant stilettos. Everyone's wearing these huge statement necklaces. It's great. Great television. Anyways, okay. So now that I covered all of those bases, I want to talk about something completely different because, like I mentioned in the beginning of the episode, we are already very deep into summer. And I said this before, but I just don't feel like summer is summering. At least not for me, just yet. The more people I talk to, the more they feel the same. Like time is just flying. And it, I just feel like I haven't settled into the season yet. You think about summer as like a child, right? You know, your summer spent growing up. Everyone has really great memories of summer. I'm saying the word summer so much that I'm almost like rethinking it. Am I saying it right? It wasn't this special, beautiful memory because we had incredible plans and we were traveling and doing all the things. I feel like summer was always great when we were younger because we were bored. Like we had time to slow down and do nothing and just exist for a little bit. We were outside. We weren't documenting every second. We were just like sort of killing time doing whatever we decided to do in that moment. You know, we were just in it. Obviously, we all can't just abandon our responsibilities and become 16 again. But maybe we can just, you know, dabble a little bit in that energy, just pick at it a little bit. So I wanted to come up with a few ways that we can sort of reset our brains and help summer feel like summer again. And number one, you're gonna hate me for this, and I'm gonna hate myself for it. Consume a little less. Here I am talking about all the TV shows I love to watch and I will be watching, and I'm telling you to consume less. Yes, I know it doesn't make sense. Part of the sweetness of summer is being a little bored. And that means consuming a little less. Not feeling like we need to fill all of those stretches of time where nothing was happening. Because the best part about being a little bored is finding something to do. And then in that quest of finding something to do, like actually enjoying it once you get to it. There was so much of my teenage life where I was so bored. Like I didn't know what to do. I I'm I was just talking to my cousin about this. Like we used to film each other with a with a literal video camera, doing stupid games or coming up with stupid skits. We would do MTV cribs around our own homes. Like we would just be so silly with a video camera because we were bored. We didn't know what else to do. I also remember creating really weird concoctions of my lunch because I had all the time in the world. Another thing I do with my best friend Kathleen, we would walk to Walmart and buy things that we could sew or buy things that we could bake. And I'm not saying we should walk to Walmart and bake some brownies. That's not what I'm saying. But I just feel like as adults, we don't ever let ourselves reach that point of boredom. Like we fill every second. And I'm the worst at this, truly the worst. I will actually make myself late for something because I want to complete a ridiculous task of things before I leave the house, because I want to come home to a perfect house that could like all these things that I try to squeeze into a moment, I could do later. Like I have time to do later. But I try to squeeze them in because no, I want to make everything so freaking perfect when I come home and hide in this perfect little bow. I just miss the days where I would listen to the same album because it was the only thing I had, right? Like you had an album with 20 songs on it, or you had an iPod that had a storage limit, so you couldn't put in endless amounts of music. You called a friend on a drive because you had time to kill. You know, you drove around with like no real destination to hit. I talked about this when there was an episode I did where Peter and I talked about bringing back boredom. And it was all about that this viral Instagram post on it. It was like somebody asked Claude, the AI program, Claude, what the real failure of human society is. And it was talking about technology has eliminated boredom altogether. And boredom is where art is created. It's where you find yourself, essentially. Like boredom is how you figure out who you are, what you like, why you picked up that hobby, et cetera. It's where creativity and just general ideas can come to mind because you're not so go, go, go. It makes sense. And that spoke to me because as a teenager, or just like when I was bored, I would reorganize things a lot. Like reorganize a bookshelf, a closet, a dresser, just clean things out and let yourself experiment with your clothes, right? As an adult, I think of it as a to-do list. Like I'm like, oh, I need to reorganize my closet, or like, oh God, I need to get to that drawer in the dresser. It really needs to be reorganized. It's hard to let myself do it because I'm like, oh, I have the time to do this. Let me go do that thing. No, it's just not that way anymore. The second life becomes quiet, we reach for our phones. We turn the TV on, we consume so much that we can never really hear our own thoughts or stare at the ceiling long enough to discover what we actually feel like doing. That's the thing that I want to bring back. So yeah, it's easier said than done. But I think if we try to like leave your phone inside while you go for a walk, um, you know, like drive around without automatically turning on the newest thing all the time. Or maybe it's just like moving social media off of your home screen. I used to do this, like taking the Instagram app and then just moving it somewhere else. Because it's insane how quickly you realize your thumb moves to that point without it even being there. It's like your body is a reflex. And then before you even realize what you're doing, you're like, why was I just on what was I doing? What was I looking for? And you're like, oh my God, my subconscious went to go look at Instagram before I even realized what I was doing. Or maybe give yourself like one hour of no phone zone during dinner, after dinner, whatever works best for you and your family. Or like the hardest one is leaving an afternoon. Maybe not even phoneless, but like keep your afternoons free. If you have a Saturday or Sunday and you don't have any plans, don't feel like you need to fill them. You know, let yourself be bored. Even if you're alone, if you're with your family, like what are we gonna do today? We're gonna decide in the moment. We're gonna see how we feel and we're gonna see what comes to us. Gosh, I also like really miss the art of making playlists. I used to make playlists all the time, truly, right up until I met Peter. So just a few years ago, I would make a new playlist like every summer, and it would sort of become my anthem for the whole year. And these were songs I would listen to while I was like drinking coffee, just in my apartment at the time, walking around New York. Just having a playlist that you curated and you found those songs was so fulfilling. I haven't had time to do that this year. Now, granted, I'm not really listening to music as much as I used to, but I loved the art of doing that. It felt like I was really finding something. And um, I don't know, it it was like the adult version of rearranging my room, you know? I don't know how that makes sense, but it does. Okay, moving on to the second thing. So the second thing we can do to sort of turn our summer around here find one small thing that makes you feel like you again. So this is sort of encompassing the first one because maybe it is creating a playlist. And the more I say that out loud, the more I'm like, ugh, I really need to do that. I'm gonna take some time to do that, hopefully this week. This is more of like a ritual thing, right? This is more of like a habitual thing that we can do all the time. Because, you know, unless you're a teacher, we don't get summers off. The seasons don't stop for us as adults, like they did when we were kids, unfortunately. So we do have the same responsibilities day after day, season after season. It doesn't really change unless our lives evolve, of course. But maybe try to find like one small thing you can remind your brain that this is a season, not just another string of super busy weeks or like a string of things we have to do. You know, right now in the Midwest, it's beautiful outside all the time. It's hot. People say it's hot, whatever. I think it's great. My Florida self thinks that it's great outside. So for me, it's like trying to get outside more. It's hard with the baby, but going for walks in the evenings, maybe even having coffee sitting outside, something like that that feels like a ritual that allows you to slow down like you did when you were fully off for the summer. Getting ice cream on a Friday night. Oh my God, that's like such a fun, easy thing to do. And it's such a summer thing to do. Getting out of the house and getting ice cream, whether it's by yourself as a family, just you and your partner, maybe it's you and your mom, maybe it's you and a girlfriend, taking like a long stroll after dinner. It doesn't have to be a walk where you're like burning calories, but like, no, you are truly outside just strolling and enjoying the outdoors. You're looking at the flowers, you're embracing that moment. You know what's such a funny thing that people do here in the Midwest is they swim in the summer. Obviously, I know everybody swims, and I used to swim my entire life as a kid in Florida. Um, but here in the Midwest, it's it's such a ritual that people will go to the pool every Monday or Thursday and take laps before they start their day. That's such a fun summer ritual. Peter started doing that, which is why that came to mind. So yeah, it doesn't have to be this like big, bold, impressive thing of like, I'm gonna do a hard 30. What's that called? 75 hard. Oh my God. I have no idea what that's called, but you know what I'm talking about. It should be the repetition of something that helps you slow down. I know years from now you're gonna remember the big vacations and the big moments and the big memories, and you want to create more of those, but sometimes the rituals of just embracing something ordinary is exactly what we need. By the way, I just have to say, I have no idea what number I said I had. I think I said that I had five things. Just no, no, I have four. Okay. So we're on number three right now. I'm I'm jumping to number three, but just pulling back to correct myself because I think before I started talking, I said I have five things. It's four. Okay, moving on. Okay, the third thing I think we can do to turn our summer around and feel like summer is summering a little bit more. And this haunts me because I have a list of these things. But it's try to clear that obligation that's sitting at the forefront of your mind. You know, there's an appointment you have to make, there's a package you have to return, there's an email that you haven't responded to that's like sitting in your inbox. There's a text from a group of people who want to get together, and you are like, oh my gosh, I have to plan this. And great, another thing I have to plan. There's a pile of stuff by the front door that you need to drop off at Goodwill, like whatever it is. By the way, all of those things I just said, I feel like are so accurate for me. And this one is so important because this is the reason why we never hit the boredom cue, right? We always have these things to do. And it's like, I can't allow myself to be bored anymore because I have so much crap. I need to do it every hour and I need to be productive. But if you could find time to just do one of these things, it don't make the rest of them seem like silly goose time. Those carefree summers felt so possible because we weren't always carrying around like these 20 unfinished administrative tasks that live in our head all the time. And I know we can't remove the idea of doing all these things. This is the problem. But just reducing a tiny ounce of that mental clutter will help us feel a little bit more relaxed and a little bit more present. So it's not doing all of those things, but maybe respond to that group chat and be like, hey guys, actually, I can't do any of this. I'm so sorry. I love you. Bye. Or respond to the group chat and be like, okay, yes, Tuesday at you know, 7 p.m. works for me. Oh my God. Like my mom brain was just like 7 p.m. is late. Maybe don't follow that example, but you know what I'm saying. Donate the pile by the front door that goes to Goodwill. It's annoying. Goodwill's out of the way. You never go over there, but just throw it in the car now so you can do it later. This one is like not fun, you know? Like it's not going to get ice cream or anything like that. But I swear the minute I do one thing on my stupid mental task that nobody talks about. Like nobody has ever asked me to do these things. They just are in my head. Like I feel like these are the things that I need to do in order to be the type of person that I want to be. It's like I create these things. I create my own issues here. But it's just, it sort of quiets my brain. So it's quieting the noise and allowing me to like, oh, you know what? I can sit in the basement and watch a movie tonight without feeling like, no, I need to be on my computer because I need to do X, Y, and Z too. Or like, oh, I can contact nap without sitting on my computer. That's a problem I have. Every time I do a contact nap with my baby lately, I feel like I need to be productive. When it's like, no, Hannah, just exist. So clearing that one obligation, it's keeping me mentally inside. That helps me release it. So when I am contact napping, I could tell myself to chill out and like open my Kindle, you know, breathe, live life. Okay. And the last point I'm gonna make here is, and this one I feel like is the perfect way to end this podcast, is to stop evaluating whether or not we're actually enjoying summer. Because hello, I've done this all summer. I put so much pressure on the season. Truly, like, I mean, what, everyone says hot girl summer. I make that joke all the time because it's not one. Spoiler alert, it's definitely not a hot girl summer for me. But that phrase exists because people put so much pressure on the season. It's the time where we can go on vacation, we can go lay outside, get a good tan, wear that new bathing suit you wanted to wear, take that trip, that road trip you wanted to take because the kids are off, or work is slow and it's my only time that I have to catch up on the things that I want to catch up on. There's so much pressure to have a great summer all the time. We feel like I haven't traveled enough, I haven't seen my friends enough. I feel all of these things. I haven't been outside enough. That's a huge one for me. I've never been so pale in the summer. I'm so pale. It's because I have a baby. I have to spend 99% of the time in the shade. I never realized how much time I would spend just finding shade as a mom. That's a huge part of it. But I feel like I haven't made enough memories because I have a baby. I can't go and do all of these things in this summer heat. Peter went to a baseball game with this company. He, you know, he got everyone tickets to a game. I couldn't go because it was too hot that day and I had nowhere to stand with the baby. Just like things like that, where I'm like, ugh, my summer isn't summer enough. I keep saying that. But it's because I'm putting this pressure on myself to have the most fun and to look great in a swimsuit and to make these great memories and have get-togethers. You know what it is? It's that chronic not enoughness. I feel like I live in that constantly. Every season of my life, I have this like this reason to feel like I'm not doing enough or being enough. And it's chronic. Like it kills me. It can take a perfectly ordinary and like a perfectly pleasant season and make it feel like I'm just not doing enough. I'm I don't want to say failing because it sounds dramatic, but like it's just not the thing I envisioned it would be right now. So to stop evaluating whether we're enjoying summer enough really means just enjoying your Tuesday or your Saturday, even if it's not the way that you envisioned. I feel this so deeply because as a new mom, I so badly want to like look cute. Period. Sometimes I feel like I can't do that. And my body's weird and my face is so dry. Oh my god, that's a hormonal thing I did not know existed, by the way. Like my face is my lips are so chapped and my skin under my eyes is so dry, my eyelids, whatever. Like, I can't wear certain makeup because my skin is so dry right now. And my point is, is like my old self, my pre-mob Hannah, would want to get super cute to go to the farmer's market or want to put on a cute outfit to grab lunch with my husband really quickly. And I put this pressure on myself that, like, no, I'm in summer. I have all these cute summer clothes. I need to get into those clothes and get into this attitude that makes me want to get dressed up and want to put makeup on and wear the cute hat or the cute earrings. Honestly, screw it. It doesn't matter. It truly does not matter. Let your hair look bad. PSA, let your hair look bad. Put your hair up in a bun. Like it is fine. I think it's that thing of just allowing your Saturday to be enough, allowing that lunch with your husband to be enough, and to not feel like you need to be this perfect summer version of yourself. I'm totally talking to myself here. But you don't have to prove that you're having a good summer in any capacity. Sometimes I feel like I need to ask myself, like, what would I do today if no one else was gonna see it ever? And sometimes it is look cute. Like, hello, I I want to do that for myself. I want to put on my cute hat and make a cute outfit. But just like whatever will bring out that sort of carefree teenage version of you that isn't thinking about 70 different things every time you're getting dressed for the day and putting pressure on that moment. So yeah, I wanted to bring this all up because it's like I don't I'm not saying like, oh, I want to be 16 again. I mean, of course I do. I loved being 16. That was such a good year. Of course, we're all in these seasons that we love and appreciate. But I bring this up because summer just looks so different as a person in your 30s going through different seasons, a person in your 40s, in your 20s, in your 60s. Every single gap of your life looks a little bit different, right? But there was something so pure about that teenage self in the summer of teenagehood, where we weren't constantly trying to rush our routines and perfect everything and document our happiness. Oh my God, that's such a big one. Like, take all the cute pictures and make sure everyone knows we're having the best summer, like meh. So yeah, I feel like leaving room for boredom, creating these small little rituals, clearing some mental space, like doing one stupid thing on your to-do list that'll just ease your brain, and then really stop falling into that like chronic not enoughness can ultimately help us just enjoy the season. Like, really just enjoy it. I feel like I'm talking about Christmas the way that I keep talking about the season, but nope, I'm actually talking about the best season, summer. Anyways. Okay, that is my entire TED Talk on really trying to enjoy our summer and what we have left of it. Thank you guys so much for listening. I so appreciate it. I say it every week. I hope everyone is having a great week, and I hope you have a great week in the head. I'll talk to you guys soon. Bye for now.