I found out that my favorite kind of reset was recently in a barbershop chair, after I might have been given the haircut I wanted.
The barber was already done with my hair and switched off my clipper and was using my brush to dust away the cut hairs from my neck (I always go to the barber's shop with my own stuff to be used). Unlike before, after I have enjoyed the haircut, I will just get up immediately, go through my phone, pay for it, and take my leave. That very day, I did not stand up, I sat in the chair for some extra minutes because honestly, it was a Saturday, I have attended to things that needed my attention and I had nothing else and no where to be.
The strange thing was how uncomfortable those minutes felt at first. I have gotten the haircut I wanted. I still have my phone in my cross bag. Everything I need to do in that shop has been fixed, not else to get fixed, reply to, go after, or plan. I was just seated on the chair while the AC was blowing directly to me and the standing fan was also doing its job across the floor.
My barber looked at me, tapped my arm, and asked if I was waiting for someone. I told him I wasn't. He smiled and replied, "Why are you still here?" because it felt unusual. I looked at him, and also smiled, but I didn't have a proper answer to give him.
That simple question he asked kept ringing in my mind because I got to realise how often I gave all my free money at work to do. If I am walking, I should be checking through something. If I'm outside my space, it's either I'm heading somewhere or I have things to attend to. And I don't just rest because every rest always has to have a specific purpose before I can get comfortable enough to enjoy it.
Since I took that brief moment to rest in my barbershop, I have begun leaving small spaces in my day completely unassigned. Some evenings, I sit at the back of the house, where there will be fewer distractions, unlike the front. Sometimes after work, I sit for five minutes just to cool off. And it's not a meditation, or call it exercise. I'm just there.
And I have discovered that those time that that I do no assign any assignments for, there has been something different about them in a way that no one can question me to see what I've achieved or covered because to truth is I've not achieved anything.
And that answer is exactly why I need times like that. Because some moments and times in my life should be planned free from my phone, devices, work, attention to anything, even my explanations. Those times should just be simply be allowed to exist.
Thank you for reading.
Images created by Gemini AI
