Summer Unplugged: Finding Wild & Free Moments

How was your summer break? Hope it was wonderful with many opportunities for offline joy. My husband couldn’t take time off work so I had 6 weeks to fill with my two monkeys who are 9 and 6 years old.

I don’t know about you but I find it much easier to come up with offline things to do in the summer. After all, the weather is a huge factor and we live in England. So this summer was fantastic for getting out and about as it hardly rained at all!

Tech didn’t steal too much of my children’s attention because we had many opportunities to get outside and blow off steam. Don’t get me wrong, we had the occasional fall out over too much time watching films/TV. But on the whole, we managed to strike a healthy balance with plenty of time outside getting fresh air and feeling wild and free.

I decided to create a list of all the fun things we got up to to give myself a little dopamine hit but also feel gratitude for the many real world dopamine hits we gave ourselves over the summer.

List of summer offline fun

·       Tree climbing, hanging and sliding at National Trust properties

·       Slip n slide and paddling pool at a friend’s house

·       Seaside action: Wave jumping, bodyboarding, lilo fun, rock pooling, rock climbing, sandcastle making, digging a large hole just because, daily ice cream eating, sea staring, sunbathing

·       Sports clubs and holiday clubs

·       Visits to tourist attractions such as River Dart Country Park

·       Blackberry picking

·       Farm exploring

·       Bouldering

·       Indoor den making

·       Obstacle courses in the garden

·       Toy playing – polly pocket, dolls etc

·       Playdough fun

·       Painting

·       Football card sorting

·       Reading

·       Boardgaming and cards

·       Rugby ball throwing

·       Play area visiting

·       Indoor inflatable visiting

What did you get up to? Have you taken a moment to pat yourself on the back for any real world dopamine hits?

You may not have been ferrying around monkeys, you may have been enjoying the sunshine in other ways. However you spent your time, it’s really good for our brains to take a moment and savour those moments of joy. Bodyboarding was a highlight for me!

We would love to hear from you so please feel free to share your summer offline joys/real dopamine hits with us.

Looking forward to seeing what Autumn has to deliver...

Love Nicola x