Beating The Rut

Who hasn’t found themselves in a rut occasionally?  You know, that place where you begin to think you’ve woken up in Bill Murray’s movie Ground Hog Day?  That’s the story of a weatherman sent for the FOURTH year in a row to cover the appearance/non appearance of a ground hog who predicts whether winter will prevail for a few more weeks, or spring will bloom.  To his great dismay, Murray finds that he wakes up the next day, and the next, and the next to find himself reliving the same day over and over.

In a rut, every day seems to resemble the day before.  Same routine, same people, over and over.  You tell yourself you need to get out and do something different, shake up the routine, but somehow the longer you’ve been in the rut, the harder it becomes to break out of it.

My significant other and I have been noticing this lately.  Between us living at opposite ends of the city, his summer schedule with his son being rather unpredictable, his elderly mother’s growing needs, and MY schedule being organized close by at my end of town, we spend quite a bit of energy just finding time to see each other.  Not to mention, it’s been a crazy 100+ degrees in Austin Texas now for what seems like an eternity.  Not exactly conducive to wanting to step out of the air conditioning.

Consequently, when we do get together, it’s easy to default to pouring a glass of wine, cooking an easy dinner and plopping down to watch a movie.  Understandable.  But, while giving in to that urge is just fine in small doses, week after week of that is a recipe for boredom and staleness, not qualities we want in our relationship. 

On two recent 104 degree Saturdays, we were debating whether to get ourselves up and out of the house to go to Barton Springs, our city’s unique spring fed pool in the middle of town.  We had planned to do it at the end of the week, but when it came to the moment, we were hem hawing.  It just seemed like a lot of trouble, a lot of HOT trouble even though 68 degree water was waiting for us.

Thankfully, finally we chided ourselves for being old codgers if we didn’t get ourselves out to have some fun.  And we were so glad we did.  We came away refreshed and stimulated and it wasn’t just the cool cool water that did it.  It was a change of pace, something different that left us with new sights, sounds, and sensations to carry us through our week.  That one effort got us re-energized and we’ve been twice since then.

Friday night, I was on my own.  There had been a French movie advertised in the paper that morning.  I adore French movies and thought I’d find someone to go with me.  Not having any luck, I considered going by myself which I normally don’t mind.  But the lure of staying home and watching TV was calling to me.  Thankfully my brother called at the last minute and he inspired me to go by coming with me.

Ahhhh.  Once more, I felt disproportionately energetic with a new lease on life by just adding these atypical activities to my day. 

I've made a note to self...how about you?

Allison Allen is Founder of WomenBloom.com, a web community inspiring and supporting women to make the most of midlife.