When I was at uni, this was almost everyday. I'd binge watch boxsets and American TV series, stay in bed all day, and consider it an achievement if I put on a bra.
Now, as much as I love a day doing nothing, I don't half feel guilty. Similarly, when I have a massive lie in - which is now classed as like 10am - I feel 'wasted day guilt'. I used to sleep in until midday, now I have to be up and at 'em by 8.30am to seize the day.
This weekend, we had one of those weekends where we vegged out in front of the television. New Orange Is The New Black was streamed on Netflix and we started binging that on Saturday morning. We broke off to go get ice-cream and take a trip to the garden centre, then went out for tea with family, but that was all for Saturday. Sunday was the same. We broke off briefly to go to the local farm shop before going out for tea again.
It was lovely. So nice to not really do anything and just properly chill and enjoy our home for the first time in months.
But the guilt I felt afterwards, oh it was something else. The guilt of not going out somewhere and making the most of the fact the weather forecast was completely wrong and it wasn't in fact raining and blowing a gale. The guilt of not giving the house a deep clean, and still not finding a home for my wedding dress.
The guilt of 'wasting' two rare days off together sitting in front of the TV watching 10 episodes of OITNB, a few eps of Friends and four episodes of Emmerdale.
Then I remembered, you don't need to achieve every single day.
I didn't have a 'to do' list for this weekend, I knew it was going to be pretty chilled. Since before we got married life has been going 100mph and we both just wanted a quiet weekend at home together.
It doesn't matter that the house didn't get deep cleaned, or that we didn't go outside except to put the recycling out or to eat. It's good, sometimes, to just take stock of everything and do nothing.
It's good to take time out from our busy day-to-day routines, to spend time in each other's company, and to just slow things down. Life moves so quick, passing us by in the blink of an eye, and we are all so busy we forget to soak it all up.
Taking a couple of days to relax and think about nothing except the drama unfolding in Litchfield helped me feel much less stressed and reduced the pressures that constantly feel like they are building in my own head. It's great, watching someone else's drama instead of worrying about your own!
It's vital that we sometimes switch ourselves off from the outside world and just spend some time with ourselves, on our sofa, where the biggest achievement of the day is putting a bra on.
Days spent doing nothing shouldn't leave you feeling guilty. You don't need to achieve something every single day. Life is about moments.
Next time I have a 'doing nothing' day, I'll remind myself that I am not lazy. I am not a big, fat, waste of space blob making further dents into my sofa. I am, in fact, taking stock of my life, using my down time wisely, and clearing my mind, body, and soul.
I'll also remind myself, in years to come, that I should relish these lazy days because, when children arrive on the scene, they will most certainly become a thing of the past.
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