Golf is the ultimate form of self care and this is the hill I will die on.
No, I don't want a facial. Yes, I will take a 7am tee time. These are not the same category and I need you to understand that.
There’s just something so absolutely soothing about a 7am tee time that levels my head in a way that nothing else does. And I mean nothing.
Not a massage. Not a facial. Not a sound bath (that was not a good experience for me). Not Pilates. Not a pedicure…None of it. Not even close.
Now before you at me…hold up…those things are fine. Great, even.
But after a recent convo with friends about what they find relaxing…things got deep and there were a lot of “ah-ha” moments.
There’s maintenance. And then there’s restoration. And they are not the same thing.
For me a facial is maintenance. A massage is maintenance - which candidly, I absolutely hate. A pedicure is maintenance…it’s upkeep, if you will.
They don’t fill my cup. My brain continues to run through the chaos of the day while I’m laying on the table with the esthetician ensuring that my perimenopause dry skin gets tamed. And a pedicure? Forget it. My brain will not shut off.
Pilates? Omg. My brain goes bananas and I jones for my phone because I have an idea I want to write down. I only do it so that I lessen my chances of osteoporosis.
So, really, those things just keep my machine running.
But golf restores something in me.
It gives me back what the busy week took away.
It’s hard to explain but I’m gonna try.
When I step up to the tee box whether it’s a 7am tee time and I smell that wet dew or it’s 2pm and that warm breeze hits my skin, it makes things go quiet.
A quiet in the way that my house is never quiet. My email is never quiet. And how my brain is never quiet.
The surroundings settle and something in my chest goes, “oh ok. Here we go.”
The most important piece of this is that you have to focus.
But not in a stressful way - it’s the exact opposite.
Golf requires your full attention on one thing at a time.
Just this shot. Just this hole. Just this moment.
Your brain can’t be running through your to-do list while you’re trying to figure out how to get out of a bunker. It just can’t.
The course will evict every other thought and force you to be present whether you want to or not.
That’s not relaxation. That’s better than relaxation. That’s your mind actually getting a break from itself.
“But wait…Delaina. Golf is hard and frustrating, how in the world is that relaxing?”
Fair.
Some holes and some rounds are absolutely maddening. But even when something doesn’t go right with my golf game, I still drive home with my head much quieter than it was when I drove there. I wish I could explain the science behind all of it.
So, if any of this sounds like you…even just a little bit, sit with that for a second.
Because maybe the reason traditional self care has never fully landed for you is because your version of restoration just might involve a 7-iron and some morning dew. Just sayin’.
Book the tee time. Tell everyone it’s self care. I’ll back you up.
Hell, I’ll even meet you there.
Delaina