Recovery, Alignment, and Central Park

Today I’m feeling a little ragged.

Yesterday I tackled one of those “basements” I talked about in an earlier email. For you, it might not be a literal crawlspace. It could be the pile of papers on your desk, the insurance policy you’ve been meaning to review, the call to a nutritionist you’ve put off, or even an email to a coach who could help you sort things out.

For me, it was my actual basement. A crawlspace in Connecticut, just high enough that I have to crouch, but low enough that a few hours of purging, tossing, vacuuming, and shelf-building leaves me sore and exhausted.

By today, I found myself trapped by the need to be productive—trying to squeeze just a little more out of myself when the tank was already empty.

That’s when my Alignment Operating System saved me.

When I checked in, it was clear: pushing harder today would only leave me worse tomorrow. What I needed wasn’t another sprint through my to-do list. What I needed was recovery.

So I did something I rarely let myself do: I left my phone behind. I walked into Central Park shoeless, shirtless, and stretched out on the Great Lawn under a perfect late-summer sky.

For 20 minutes I just stared upward. Then, slowly, I began to stretch. A spinal twist. A pigeon pose. A few martial arts movements. Eventually, without planning to, I jogged a half mile across the park.

I came back lighter. Recovered. Reset.

Central Park reminded me: even in the busiest city in the world, we can still find places to breathe, reset, and connect to something bigger than our inboxes.