24 Mindful Hours in London

Ok so the title of this post is misleading in two ways.

Firstly, a few weeks ago my hubby and I went on a extended ‘date night’ as per the intention I outlined in a previous post about the summer holidays.  If truth be told it wasn’t quite 24 hours (maybe it was about 21 and a half hours to be exact!) but, however long it was, it was a much needed rest. We had a lovely relaxing time together staying next to the Tower of London (the photos below were taken from our ‘lastminute.com secret hotel’ which proved a great way to get a decent hotel at extremely good value) without being interrupted by extremely cute, but extremely demanding children.

Secondly, there was no way I was mindful for the whole of the time we were away.  Yes, I was ‘in the present’ for a good many moments of the little trip (‘little’ being an understatement as we took a train journey less than 20 minutes away from home and ended up staying about 10 minutes walk away from hubby’s place of work!).   AND the fact that the accommodation was only a short distance from the kids meant I could rest easy that we could get back if necessary, therefore helping me to stay grounded and not let my mind get hijacked by anxious thoughts.

I think I even managed to take a few sips of wine mindfully too – something I rarely achieve at home.   I even tried my hardest to engage in mindful eating (read about my struggles with this here) and succeeded with a few savoured mouthfuls.

 

It was lovely to take some time to take in the amazing view from the hotel and surrounding area – especially the beautiful view of the Thames we had at breakfast time.

However, of course my mind wandered – especially to thoughts of how the kids were getting on – the eldest with his grandparents and the twins with our fantastic nanny.  I struggled to keep the ‘Mummy Guilt’ in check and so sought solace in a relaxing couple of hours in the spa.  After all, everyone deserves a little bit of ‘me time’ I reminded myself and I did desperately need to recharge my batteries in order to be able to give the kids my all during the rest of the summer holidays.  It is true what they say – to be able to look after others, one must first look after oneself.

My husband was given my full attention when we were chatting and it was definitely the right time for a Digital Detox.  All too often he gets me nodding along to him while I’m doing other things – playing with the children, cleaning up, doing the washing, sitting on the laptop in the evening or flicking through my phone…. this day and night away reminded me how healthy it is to build in time for each other and we had a fab time together chatting, eating, drinking and wandering around a lovely part of London without any distractions.

As we started our (short!) journey home – on checking out the receptionist told us how she lived very close to us in south-east London (!) –  we agreed that we would definitely not leave it two years until we go on another night away that was just the two of us.

You never know we may even leave our hometown next time 🙂

Have you booked a night away with your partner recently?

Is it something that you think of as a luxury or a necessity?

 NB:  it goes without saying that little old me and my teeny blog have not been in cahoots with lastminute.com for a freebie  – I just included this information for the purposes of authenticity!