Weekend Wrap: A Time of Change, a Time to Balance

Each weekend, I like to pause, reflect, and look back on the past week. This isn't meant to be a deep dive or sweeping life philosophy—just a collection of things that caught my attention, made me think, brought me joy, or stayed with me in some way.

What I Noticed

I feel out of balance.

Things just feel off. I'm back to having a medical student and resident with me. It was a nice 7-week break. On the one hand, it feels normal to be teaching all day, every day. On the other, it makes the days longer, busier, and more taxing.

I hope that this recognition can be helpful.

How? I'm not entirely sure. But I hope that at least recognizing that things are off and that I need to find better balance will help me eventually get there.

What Helped

I think this plays into that sensation of being unbalanced. I know that my inner dialogue never shuts up, and sometimes I really wish that it would.

But, again, this is something that I can control, and I need to remember that. Does that mean I'm automatically going to switch everything tomorrow, like magic? Of course not. But understanding that it is my inner monologue that is often sabotaging me also means that I can control it.

It's not easy. It's often a constant battle, but we do have control. We can do something about it. And that, at least, is empowering.

What I’m Enjoying

In some ways, Psycroptic and Protest the Hero could not be more dissimilar. And yet I find myself drawn to them in a similar way.

Both bands play technical music that is often fast, has a lot going on, and can seem a little overwhelming. But whereas Psycroptic comes at it from the technical death metal standpoint, Protest the Hero comes at it from a post-hardcore progressive sonic chaos standpoint.

And interestingly, both bands released an album on the same day. I've had a little over a week to listen to both The Pulse of Annihilation and Within. In that time, I find myself listening to both of them fairly equally. They're very different, and yet I'm enjoying them both enough. They both deserved a spot here.

What I’m Practicing

I'm trying to find that balance that I talked about. I'm trying to figure out how to make everything fit in my life in such a way that at the end of the day I feel I've spent my time where I should, that I've accomplished what I wanted, and that I'm making myself a little better.

I don't know how well I'm doing.

I suppose that's the thing. I haven't been as regular in my self-reflection as I know I should be, and so that is likely at least a source of the imbalance that I feel. The good news is, again, this means I am in control. I just need to do it. That's always the hard part, isn't it?

Wrapping Up

Summer is always an interesting time of the year.

On the one hand, it feels like there's less going on. On the other, it feels crazy busy. Growing up, it was such a time of transition. As an adult, I sometimes wonder if that lack of transition throws us off.

Either way, all we can do is keep trying. Day after day, week after week. Trying to be a little bit better. Trying to do a little bit better and hope that at the end of it all we've made some progress.