5 Easy Ways To Have A Fun Summer Break...Even With a 9-5

Picnic in the park.

Picnics are my go-to activity idea for sunny spring days. If you’re lucky enough to live close to a park, simply pack your bag and head over there to spread out amongst the green, green grass. If you’re not close to a park – no worries! You can picnic just as easily in your front or back yard.

Picnic outings are really what you make them, but a fewessentials I never fail to bring are a big picnic blanket, sunglasses, a bluetooth speaker, a water bottlefull of cold water (hydration is key), and of course, yummy snacks to munch on.

Invite your pals to your picnic, and your spring day is set!

Go for a walk.

I think walking is the most underrated exercise because 1. you get a good, low-impact workout, 2. it’s totally free to do, and 3. there’s an opportunity to see something new every time!

Walking is a great way to clear your mind after a long workday or just get out of the house on the weekends. All you have to do is throw on your fave walking shoesand step out the front door! I prefer to have my headphones in, playing whatever music my current mood is, so I can feel like the main character – but, walks can be just as entertaining without background music. In fact, you may notice even more newness when you go sans-earbuds! Let your mind wander.

You don’t even have to have a destination on your springtime walks, but it’s nice to end your journey at a coffee or ice cream shop for a sweet, refreshing reward.

Take a bike ride.

Bike rides are so amazing for unlocking your fun-loving inner child. Faster than traveling on foot, biking gives you the chance to explore beyond your neighborhood, if you’re up for it.

You don’t have to be a sporty person or go far distances to enjoy biking, either. Instead of driving or walking to your fave local restaurant, try biking there for a change in scenery. Plus, it’s environmentally-friendly!

If you don’t own a bike, you can definitely snag one for less than $100 off Facebook Marketplace. Some cities even have easy, cheap bike sharing programs like Lime or Lyft bikes to get you from point A to point B.

Visit an outdoor sculpture garden.

This activity idea may depend on where you live, but many cities and towns have museums with outdoor art. Typically, you won’t have to pay admission to access outdoor sculpture museums, which is a nice plus.

Again, this activity idea is a great way to get a change of scenery after being holed up in the house all winter. Wait for a good weather day and get out there with your family or friends! You also might wanna take your phone or camera with you to capture all the memories.

Try a new hike.

Like walking, hiking is amazing for springtime. Spring is the perfect time to embark on a hike because oftentimes, it’s not too hot or too cold. While there are tons of fun, free, and unique hikes in the US to check off your bucket list, it’s likely that you live close to a nature preserve or even a state park that has accessible trails!

I really enjoy usingAllTrails to find hikes near me, so this could be a great tool to use if you’re unsure of your closest hiking location. You can filter the trail search results by difficulty, so even if you don't want to do a challenging hike, there's gonna be an easier route to choose from.

Like any outdoor activity, you’ll want to have water handy on your hike. I recommend bringing along a water bottle backpack (like a CamelBak) to stay hydrated while hiking. I also never forget to pack high-protein snacks for a boost of energy.

Plant flowers.

Got a yard yearning for some blooms? Head to your closest gardening center for a few seeds. Better yet, you can reach for some inexpensive, already-grown flowers to amp up the spring spirit.

Planting flowers might be a little messy when it comes to outdoor activities, but your hard work will pay off once your yard is dotted with pretty flowers. All season long, you’ll have stems to pluck and bring inside for a killer DIY floral arrangement.

Volunteer with an environmental cleanup group.

Your community is bound to have some sort of environmental cleanup group that helps better the land around you! An easy Google search will likely land you tens of results for free groups to join and participate.

Spending a weekend morning picking up floating trash at your local park or roadway only takes up a few hours of your day, isearth-friendly, and also provides a great opportunity to meet new, like-minded friends!

Do art outside.

Challenge your friend group (or the family) to a fun art challenge by picking a cool destination and drawing, painting, or collaging the natural scene around you. You’ll get to spend some sun-soaked hours outside with your pals and get a really cool art piece out of it! The scene doesn’t even have to be your classic trees-and-sky nature scene, either. You could visit an important landmark in your friendship (like a restaurant, bar, or cafe) and make art out of that.

From there, you can hang up the piece for some sentimental wall art, or gift it to a loved one.

If you’re short on art supplies, you can often find really cheap ones at the thrift store or at a creative reuse center! This way, you can ensure your outdoor artsy shenanigans won’t break the bank.

Visit your local farmer’s market.

I love a farmer’s market. It’s fun, it’s bright, and it can also be a fashion show! Throwing on your favorite spring outfit and heading to your local market just hits different, especially since you can stock up on all the good in-season produceand cute, locally-made goodies. Most farmer's markets will start opening up in early spring, weather permitting.

Go tide pooling.

If you are fortunate enough to live near a coastline, going on a stroll by the ocean to tide pool is an amazing way to pass the time outdoors this spring. Just ,make sure to followthe appropriate steps to protecting the ecosystem when you’re out and about!

Go to the zoo or aquarium.

For those who are a little too far from the ocean to see the sea creatures in action, your nearest zoo or aquarium will do! Many zoos are outdoors, so you can also soak up the sun while you’re seeing the animals!

From colorful birds to interesting fish, you’re sure to catch something you’ve never seen before, and learn a little bit along the way.

The Burnoutby Kinsella Sophie

Sasha's corporate life has left her feeling everything but inspired. Her days revolve around putting out 'fires' at work which means her personal life essentially doesn't exist. Deciding to leave that behind for a while, she books a trip to her favorite resort only to find that it doesn't look or feel like paradise once she arrives. She runs into Finn and he's just as stressed as her, but he wears his ornery feelings on his sleeves.

This leads to disagreements and a series of notes that leave them no choice but to talk to each other. Suddenly, there's so much to talk about and the discovery of a shared hobby begins bringing them closer than their burnout ever will.

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski

Emily Nagoski, PhD, and Amelia Nagoski, DMA, are two sisters who have written a manual that's meant to help you get to the root of your burnout. They combine science and resources that also help you deviate away from letting stress control your life. Additionally, the sisters have put together The Burnout Workbook: Advice and Exercises to Help You Unlock the Stress Cycle so you have more room to complete the exercises in Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle.

The 30-Day Burnout Fix: End Exhaustion, Break the Stress Cycle, and Reclaim Control Through Mindset Shifts, Behavioral Change, and Emotional Mastery by Janessa Rhoades

Reading about someone's experience with burnout makes us feel less alone and that's exactly what you can find in The 30-Day Burnout Fix. Janessa Rhoades is adamant about giving you action-based tools that you can apply to your daily life. It's similar to receiving 'homework' after your therapist session. In order to change the way you live, this book lets you know that you have to be willing to do the work.

Burnout Recovery: 15 techniques to overcome chronic stress, regain control, restore your energy and your focus by Amber Pierce

I love when burnout books tell you what you can expect in the title. While I'm all for an ambiguous fiction title, I prefer mental health books to be straight forward. Burnout Recovery is great to read if you feel similar because it breaks down how you can tell if you're about to become burned out, the stages of burnout, and there's even a quiz that helps you gauge how stressed you are.

From Burnt Out to Fired Up: Reignited Your Passion for Teaching by Morgane Michael

Although I'm not a teacher, I decided to read this book because I think it's important to recognize that everyone is capable of feeling burned out. I have a few associates who have talked about feeling stressed while teaching and it made me realize how much teachers can be taken for granted.

What From Burnt Out to Fired Up does is help teachers rediscover their passion and joy for teaching while learning to set important boundaries.

Therapist Burnout: Your Guide to Recovery and a Joyful, Sustainable Private Practice by Kelly Higdon & Miranda Palmer

This also goes without saying, but therapists are also capable of feeling the effects of burnout. As often as I rely on my therapist to help me work through my own issues, I sometimes wonder how she takes care of herself while helping clients. This book gives a little more insight into how therapists can do jus that without losing their desire to be of service to others.

Fist Pumps by Scott MacDiarmid, MD

Fist Pumps was another personal read because my sister is a Pharmacist and I've heard many stories about how medical industry professionals can be treated poorly by patients. I think it's easy for people in this profession and others to remember that they're worthy of rest, but Fist Pumps is a book that says, "No more!"

It's a great gift to give someone who works in the medical industry IMO.

I'm So Effing Tired: A Proven Plan to Beat Burnout, Boost Your Energy, and Reclaim Your Lifeby Amy Shah, MD

I'll be honest — the title alone convinced me to buy this book because I'm pretty sure I've screamed the explicit version of it within the past week. Aside from stating the obvious, Amy Shah, MD also asks you to consider how your diet may be affecting the way your body responds to stress. She even shares a hormone-balancing tea that's actually pretty tasty if I say so myself.

Brilliant Burnout: How Successful, Driven Women Can Stay in the Game by Rewiring Their Bodies, Brains and Hormones by Nisha Jackson, PhD

I can't get enough of evidence-based burnout books like Brilliant Burnout. After realizing my stress has been affecting my body, reading this book helped me realize that everything matters internally. Nisha Jackson, PhD does an excellent job of describing how to optimize one's hormones, brain, and body so that burnout can start taking a backseat.

Mommy Burnout: How to Reclaim Your Life and Raise Healthier Children in the Process by Dr. Sheryl Ziegler

I'm not going to lie — becoming a mom made me question my sanity because it can be freaking tough to navigate. Even if you do have support, there are moments when guilt and burnout threaten to burn everything down, leaving you feeling exhausted. But, Mommy Burnout has been helping me take a moment to catch my breath so I don't lose my mind.

It's also an encouraging read that wants moms to get past this idea of being perfect because it honestly doesn't exist and can cause more harm than good. In other words, it's like reading something your own therapist may tell you.

Love Your Kids Without Losing Yourself: 5 Steps to Banish Guilt and Beat Burnout When You Already Have Too Much To Do by Dr. Morgan Cutlip

Because I can't get enough of mommy burnout books, I decided to read Love Your Kids Without Losing Yourself for good measure. If it's not obvious, I'm literally sick of mommy guilt and burnout on top of stress I feel in other areas of my life. What I can say is that this book helps moms to acknowledge how we feel without placing the blame on our kids. It's easy to take our frustrations out on others in general, but little people don't deserve our inability to self-regulate our emotions.

Reset: Live a Grace-Paced Life in a Burnout Culture by David Murray

Burnout culture is absolutely real and it's threatening to hinder how we live our lives + interact with others. While this is a Christian-based book for men, they're certainly important to consider because burnout isn't impartial to a particular group of people. I bought this to help my S.O. navigate his toxic work culture, expectations placed on him by society, and family. So far he's said that it's helping him to realize the importance of slowing down to allow more grace to enter his mind.

Burnout Immunity: How Emotional Intelligence Can Help You Build Resilience and Heal Your Relationship with Work by Kandi Wiens, Ed.D. - Available For Purchase April 23, 2024

This book isn't out yet, but I had to include it on this list because it's a highly anticipated read. Aside from learning about the what burnout is and how to reset our hormones so we can minimize our chance of experiencing it, emotional intelligence is also important to be aware of. Kandi Wiens, Ed.D. specifically switched careers to understand why so many are struggling with burnout at work and her incredible discoveries have led to Burnout Immunity.

As a Power of Women honoree, Mariska was recognized in regards to her work as an advocate for sexual assault survivors. She took the stage and used her platform to discuss rape and assault conviction reversals, shining a light on the recent overturned ruling in Harvey Weinstein's landmark NYC case. Here's what she said:

Today I want to talk about reversing convictions, and more specifically I want to talk to you about how impossible it is to reverse mine. It’s impossible to reverse my conviction that survivors matter. It is impossible to reverse my conviction that what happens to us matters, and that our society must respond to survivors with a more a compassionate, holistically, deeper, and more nuanced understanding of what healing means.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that after a trauma, survivors can reclaim lives of hope, of possibility, of audacious risk, beautiful intimacy, and glorious, glorious abundant joy. And I stand before you as evidence of that statement.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that we must listen to survivors as experts on what justice means. It is extraordinary how little their voices are consulted, let alone incorporated, in the process of deciding how to repair harm. Justice is not a one-size-fits-all journey.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that patriarchal impunity has to end. Patriarchal impunity is when a male-dominated system exempts perpetrators from punishment. Studies show that only 20% of all rape cases in the U.S. are reported to the police, and that between 5 and 0% of all rapes result in a guilty plea or a conviction. So why do 80% of victims not report? Because they're met with a system that grants impunity to perpetrators; a system that blames victims; a system that accepts only those victims who are experienced as "real" rape; a system that completely misunderstands the neurobiology of trauma, which causes behavior in women that doesn't fit the picture of how a "real victim" would act.

Is that change needed that victims should just pull themselves together? Just buck up and report anyway? No. No, it's the system that receives them that needs to change

It is impossible to reverse my conviction — and the conviction of my extraordinary team, The Joyful Heart — that the backlog of untested rape kits can be brought to zero; that the testing of all new kits must be mandated; that we need a statewide kit tracking system; and that survivors have the right to access the status of their kits.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that grammar — yes, grammar — that we use when we speak about rape must change. In the sentence, "A woman is raped," there's a crime and there's a victim, but there's no perpetrator. Where's the perpetrator? Where is he? Statistically, as we know, most likely he's walking free. He's so free that he doesn't even appear in the language about the crime that he committed. Is that not extraordinary? It's extraordinary that in the very grammar, the perpetrator goes free. Reintroducing perpetrators in the language of rape will make some very unwieldy grammar, but that's the nature of change. It's unwieldy, it's messy, it's uncomfortable, but it's necessary.

Hargitay continued on in her prolific speech to describe that rape shouldn't be considered a "crime of passion" because it's "not simply the next step in the trajectory of his passion" when a man takes a consensual hookup too far and assaults a woman against her will. She stated that it's "an exercise of power," doubling down that the language we use is important.

The speech went on to address that rape is both about power and control, as a "construct" that was "built, and assembled, and reinforced over time." She noted that there are people with these positions of power — and she specifically called out those in the entertainment industry — that could make a difference and aligned themselves to victims and survivors.

After this and some other remarks, Hargitay specifically called out the Weinstein conviction reversal. She said:

I do want to say something about the Harvey Weinstein conviction, specifically about the reason that it was overturned: too many women's voices. Too many women's voices were allowed to speak. Hallelujah! Amen! I can't imagine anything more beautiful than that. The Daily podcast episode talked about how it was so risky for the prosecution to have that many women testify. Risky to let women speak? You're damn right it is!

Too many women speaking brings change. Too many women speaking shakes the establishment. Too many women means we get listened to more, and people might actually hear what we have to say. Look what happened when women started saying just two words, right? Me too — just as an example — a tidal wave of change. Me too.

And then of course, there was the response: the Me Too Movement. The backlash. The examination of whether the changes that have come are lasting, or are even positive. Of course there's a backlash! What did they expect? For women to speak repeatedly, loudly, together, with a purpose — for there to be no backlash? The backlash is evidence of how powerful those voices were, how powerful those voices ARE.

Watch Mariska Hargitay's Full Speech Here

Turns out that your TV heroes really can be your IRL heroes after all. Long live Olivia Benson! Long live Mariska Hargitay!