• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Rowan Mangan

Writer. Mom. Wild Inventurer.

  • Contact me
  • Wild Inventures Blog

Time cram

May 19, 2022 Leave a Comment

Dear friends,

A couple of days ago, I was reflecting on the need to build some more exercise into my week. Nothing extreme: just get this old body moving around a bit. We haven’t been City Mice* for a few weeks, and without the constant incidental walking I do in New York, I’ve started getting creaky.

Side note about walking: I love to walk. But only when it’s a form of transport. I can “go for a walk,” do a loop around a goddamn football field or whatever, but I do not enjoy it. Nothing makes me happier in this world than stepping out my front door and not having to use a car to get where I’m going. Buses, subways, trams (in the old days back home)—all these are fine. But I feel so utterly disempowered as a perambulating human being when I have to climb into a machine to go get milk. It still strikes me as such a bizarre thing that out here in our bucolic mountainside idyll, there’s nowhere we can walk except, well, up. Or, you know, down. And I love wandering about in the trees. It fills a very different need for me and is transcendent. But it’s not cardio.

So, I do need to exercise.

This realization led to me pulling out my calendar to see when. Everything must be scheduled, which is its own form of disempowerment, but that’s another rant for another day.

The point of this rant, however, is the thought process that began unrolling in my mind as I looked at the rows of rectangles that represent hours in my days.

Immediately, I looked for things I was already planning to do, and began assessing which of these could be combined with exercise. Could I make that call while on the elliptical without my colleague thinking I was a heavy-breathing prank caller? Could I listen to that recording on the rower? Would it be weird if I showed up to that Zoom meeting on a treadmill?

It never occurred to me to look for time slots that weren’t already full and put exercise in there as an activity to be fully present for. Part of that is that there are very few such slots in my days. But another part of it is this insidious cultural pattern that says, “Optimize!” “Streamline!” “Synergize!”

So my wild inventure for this week is to stop cramming my time so full. To allow myself to follow my own instincts about what my body and heart and mind and soul need. To bring music back into my days and banish the ravenous productivity monster from my mind—at least for a week.

Reporting back from the inventure

I put these thoughts down four days ago, and published them over on my Instagram. Then I rang away to my city mouse house in New York and proceeded to have a completely different kind of time.

Did I try to do multiple things at once? No, unless you count singing while cooking, or daydreaming while doing housework, or walking while talking to a friend while pushing a stroller while drinking coffee (which isn’t technically multi-tasking because it’s just the constant state of being a parent).

 

It’s funny to me that in the fast-paced, busy city life I was more successful at not cramming things in than I am out here in the dreamy breezy forest. Which makes me think that it’s stillness that my productivity mind wants to cram, not movement.

What a weird, backwards, paradoxical thing to discover. My brain takes a slow couple of hours and tries to shove 25 things into it. Whereas when I have to take the kid to the park, pick up bread at the market, take a walk with a friend, water houseplants, suddenly the brain is like, “Hey, let’s be shanti shanti, just be in the moment, yeah?”

I wonder if my brain is scared of stillness.

Okay, friends. I just decided that my next inventure is to go be still in the trees for an hour and see what comes up.

This article originally appeared on Rowan’s Wild Inventures substack newsletter. To subscribe and get all Rowan’s posts in your inbox, head over to Wild Inventures on substack now. 

you may also like...

  • Parenting inventures
  • Inventures in Seeing
  • What are Wild Inventures?

Filed Under: Parenting inventures

Previous Post: « Morning Self and the Storyteller
Next Post: A Radical Heart »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Footer

find me on instagram!

Doing dangerous things carefully is how children—and all of us—learn anything important. By the same token, Martha says, we grow emotionally when we do painful things with courage and integrity. 

In this BeWild Files episode of Bewildered, Martha and Ro talk about how to navigate the difficult yet necessary situations life throws our way.

Accepting that it’s not going to be easy helps you stay in your integrity, so you can work through your feelings and get to a place of peace. 

To learn more, tune in for the full conversation!

Listen at the link in our bio—or on your favorite podcasting app.

@bewilderedpodcast 
@themarthabeck 
.
.
.
#bewildered #bewilderedpodcast #podcast #podcastersofinstagram #wayfinder #wayfinderlifecoach #rowanmangan #marthabeck #naturenotculture #funny #funnypodcast #funnypodcasts
So this arrived today. And it is a VIBE. 🇺🇸 So this arrived today. And it is a VIBE. 🇺🇸

#american #immigrants #wegetthejobdone
This week’s Wild Inventures letter is an embarra This week’s Wild Inventures letter is an embarrassing confession. It talks about the HUGE difference between what I want my creative process to look like with my writing… and the sad, nerdy truth of it. 

I hope you’ll have a read, and consider subscribing! Link in my bio.
I did a little time travel recently, thanks to my I did a little time travel recently, thanks to my ride or die music hero @anidifranco.

It was quite trippy to revisit “the early years” of my adulthood—a rush of joy and also a confronting sense of the confusion and chaos of that time. 

I wrote about it in this week’s Wild Inventures newsletter on Substack. I’d love to hear what you think. Please subscribe! Link in my bio.

#anidifranco #anidifrancolyrics
Martha and Ro are back with another episode of Bew Martha and Ro are back with another episode of Bewildered, and this time Martha has the audacity—the audacity!—to assume that Rowan does not have everything all figured out. It’s an outrage! 😂

This episode is all about emotional energy—what it is and why our culture makes it so hard for us to understand it. 

For Martha and Ro’s insights on how to recognize and interpret this kind of energy (plus more than a few laughs along the way) you won’t want to miss the full episode. 

Listen at the link in our bio—or on your favorite podcasting app.

@bewilderedpodcast 
@themarthabeck 
.
.
.
#bewildered #bewilderedpodcast #podcast #podcastersofinstagram #wayfinder #wayfinderlifecoach #rowanmangan #marthabeck #naturenotculture #funny #funnypodcast #funnypodcasts #wildenergy #energy #reiki
"This special BeWild Files episode of Bewildered i "This special BeWild Files episode of Bewildered is all about what Brené Brown calls “vulnerability hangovers”—what they are and how we can get over them.

A vulnerability hangover refers to the shame we often feel after sharing our authentic selves—usually when what we’ve shared defies the culture’s expectations, whether intentionally or unintentionally. 

As Rowan explains, there's being in the culture, there’s reacting to the culture, and there's being independent of the culture, which is what we are when we stand up as our wild true selves. Vulnerability hangovers are simply part of that experience.

In this episode Martha and Ro share their personal vulnerability hangover stories and the “culture work” that has helped them feel better, so be sure to tune in for the full conversation!"

#bewildered #bewilderedpodcast #podcast #podcastersofinstagram #wayfinder #wayfinderlifecoach #rowanmangan #marthabeck #naturenotculture #funny #funnypodcast #funnypodcasts
This week’s Wild Inventures letter is all about This week’s Wild Inventures letter is all about the collective “now” of the era we’re all alive in. 

Have a read and subscribe for free at the link in my bio!
RESEARCH. Who can guess the major setting for the RESEARCH. Who can guess the major setting for the next novel?! 🤔🤔🤔
"The cultural imperative to adhere to certain soci "The cultural imperative to adhere to certain social rules is extremely strong. And when we don’t adhere to those rules, whether accidentally or not, we can experience what Brené Brown calls a “vulnerability hangover”—the feeling that we’ve exposed more than the culture allows.

And speaking of vulnerable exposure, Martha shares a hilarious story involving nakedness at the spa—entirely accidental!—that led to a 25-minute conversation where everyone pretended it hadn’t happened. Culture again, folks. It’s powerful.

In this special BeWild Files episode of Bewildered, Martha and Rowan take a deep dive into the subject of vulnerability hangovers—and the hangover cures that work wonders for them. Be sure to listen! (Towels optional.)"

Listen at the link in our bio—or on your favorite podcasting app.

@bewilderedpodcast 
@themarthabeck 

#bewildered #bewilderedpodcast #podcast #podcastersofinstagram #wayfinder #wayfinderlifecoach #rowanmangan #marthabeck #naturenotculture #funny #funnypodcast #funnypodcasts
I wrote myself some rules to help me get to the wa I wrote myself some rules to help me get to the warm and scrumptious glow of HAVING WRITTEN. 

But one size doesn’t fit all days or all folks or just the infinite and ever-loving LIFEYNESS of it all. My rules reflect the ways lifeyness shows up for me. You might need to make your own. 

You can read and subscribe to my Substack newsletter at the link in my bio.
Instagram post 17977439803922640 Instagram post 17977439803922640
"Do you find that you enjoy setting goals but have "Do you find that you enjoy setting goals but have a harder time achieving them? 

It turns out that lurching, rather than sailing smoothly, toward goals is how it works for most of us, and in this episode of Bewildered, Martha and Ro are talking all about it!

Ro recently saw a specialist for a painful shoulder, and along with a list of exercises he wanted her to do, he gave her a perfect commentary on how hard it is to move everyday toward a goal:

“You're in a lot of pain, so you're going to do the exercises. The exercises are going to work, and the pain will go away. You will stop doing the exercises because there's no pain. Then the pain will come back, and you'll start doing the exercises again.”

Moving toward your goals, Martha says, is like driving a wombat or a snake or some other animal you can't easily control. Stopping and starting, again and again, may feel awkward, but it does get us where we want to go.

Don’t miss the full episode to learn how to set goals that resonate with your whole self and stop-and-start your way toward them with joy.

Listen at the link in our bio—or on your favorite podcasting app."

@themarthabeck 
@bewilderedpodcast 
.
.
.
#bewildered #bewilderedpodcast #podcast #podcastersofinstagram #wayfinder #wayfinderlifecoach #rowanmangan #marthabeck #naturenotculture #funny #funnypodcast #funnypodcasts
New Substack newsletter this week. This one’s ab New Substack newsletter this week. This one’s about the idea of finding our stories inside of our stories. Or something like that. Plus, aren’t slow cookers amazing? Link in my bio.
SPOTIFY AND THE BEWILDERED PODCAST 🛠️ We've SPOTIFY AND THE BEWILDERED PODCAST 

🛠️ We've been busy making some behind-the-scenes tweaks and updates to improve Bewildered.

🫣 Unfortunately for our listeners on Spotify, there was a little unexpected disruption. Oops!

🧑‍🔧Bewildered (and The Gathering Pod) are both back on Spotify, but you may need to resubscribe to the individual podcasts in the app.

🔍If you’re having trouble finding Bewildered, either use the search function in Spotify or use the "Listen in your favorite podcast app" link in our bio to find the direct link. 

💗 We love and appreciate all of our listeners. Each of you is astonishingly intelligent, exceptionally good-looking and with excellent taste. Thanks for all your support, possums! 😘😘😘
New Substack newsletter (finally!) out today—Inv New Substack newsletter (finally!) out today—Inventures in Inconsistency, a topic I feel very qualified to talk about. Hope you like it! Link in bio. x
"It’s The Procrastination Episode of Bewildered, "It’s The Procrastination Episode of Bewildered, which Martha and Ro almost named something else not quite safe for work…but they thought they’d get too many letters—“and not the good kind!”

Procrastination can be an extremely frustrating experience, but when Martha and Ro throw in a little sexual innuendo, it’s hard not to laugh along with them. 

For a lot of humor but also some seriously effective tools you can use to find your way out of procrastination, you won’t want to miss the full episode. (Just maybe don’t do it in public.)"

You can listen to the full episode on our website, link in the bio, or on your favorite podcast app.

@themarthabeck 
@bewilderedpodcast 
.
.
.
#bewildered #podcastinglifestyle #funnypodcasts #selfhelppodcast #spiritualpodcast #podcastshows #podcastoftheday #podcasterlife #funnypodcast #podcastersofig #podcastingtips #podcastofinstagram #podcastrecommendation #podcastlifestyle #newpodcastepisode #womenwhopodcast #instapodcast #newpodcastalert #podcastseries #podcastepisode #podcastcommunity #podcastmovement #podcastsofinstagram #podcastaddict #podcastinglife #writerofinstagram #podcasthost #newpodcast #podcastersofinstagram

follow me on twitter!

Tweets by rowanmangan

Copyright © 2020 Rowan Mangan · Site by Lilt Creative