Managing the post event high dip, re-entry to the routine
Jen opens the video by greeting viewers, explaining she was away in Norway, showing her Norwegian mug, and noting it's National Recovery Month. This brief intro sets the tone and context for the rest of the talk.
She explains what it feels like to come down from an exciting time—travel, celebrations, or major life events—and how returning to routine can feel dull or draining. She outlines how schedule changes, jet lag, and disrupted routines contribute to that dip in energy.
Jen describes concrete strategies she used after returning: allowing extra sleep, getting light movement, arranging a catch-up with a friend, and scheduling a couple of positive early meetings to jump-start her routine. These actionable steps are offered as ways to avoid using substances to self-soothe and to gently re-integrate into daily life.
She suggests small but effective practices—staying hydrated, using caffeine strategically, processing memories with gratitude, and leaning into productivity—to build resilience during the low period. The emphasis is on tiny, manageable habits and gratitude as 'armor' to transition back into work and routine.
Jen invites viewers to share how they handle seasonal or post-event dips, mentions the next sober not somber hour, and closes with well wishes and encouragement to use tools from their recovery toolkit. The video ends with a warm sign-off and reminder about National Recovery Month.
Hey everyone, Jen Varale. So we're not summer hour. I've had some hours away from you. In fact, I've had an entire month away from Cadre as I was in Norway. The first or second Tuesday even, I tried to connect from Norway and Cadre app not having it. So I just took the month off. Happy to be reunited. I have my NA beverage of choice for sober not summer hour as coffee in my Norwegian mug. Isn't this the cutest? And yeah, happy National Recovery Month. I've been thinking a lot about this today from a perspective of coming off a high.
e. for me, travel. And coming off of that and having something end could be a family celebration, a wedding, something that feels so significant and so exciting that when it's over, you're sort of left with this sense of what next. Like that a high and it could just be, like I said, a high in your life that you're excited about can be pretty hard to come back to real life, especially if you're coming back to rain in Minnesota, the weather can affect that. Your schedule can affect that. Literally coming back from a celebration or such a high in your life where everything else seems boring or mundane.
before I left on my travels, I was locked in with schedules and being productive and routine. And during a month of travel, I got away from a lot of those routines. I essentially felt like I was living someone else's life. And now here I am just back in Minneapolis. on the 27th. So what is this, two days later. And I still have clothes strewn about. I can't even look at the laundry that I have to do. But this is all to say that there are times in your life where you're going to have those kind of celebrations and highs.
And what do you do to prepare for the dip in energy or the downtime that comes after so that you do not look to substances to sort of soothe that depressive or boring state that it can sometimes feel like. So the examples I want to share with you today are things that I have done this month and kind of preparing myself for reentry to real life. Certainly there can always be improvement, but I did spend some time thinking about what it might be like to come back after an incredible month of travel in Norway, saunaing, meeting people, having a completely different lifestyle, essentially working about 25 to 35% of my time.
and kind of trying to figure out if I can integrate working into a travel or nomadic lifestyle. So a lot to digest there and coming back from a month of being away, I've just had a lot of things come up. The first thing that I allowed myself to do was sleep. So if we are not well rested, then those are the triggers, the things that come up immediately that one might say a substance could solve for. So the first thing I did was just allow myself to rest. Like I said, laundry still needs to be done, but I need to take care of myself and be very forgiving.
in the next couple of days because guess what? When you travel, Norway is seven hours difference, your circadian rhythms are completely off. So even though I'm going to bed at a normal time in Minneapolis, I'm still waking up at like one in the morning because it's 8:00 AM in Norway. So that might happen for a while. I might just feel like I'm not fully rested. One of the other things I know works for me and I put it on autopilot is I get movement. Maybe about the last thing that anyone wants to do after a celebratory high is to be like, oh, I'm gonna go work out and get some movement.
So any light movement, even just yoga and stretching can help get you out of that almost depressive or ho-hum mindset. So yesterday I went for a run And that was fantastic. I I just put it on autopilot and got out the door. Another third thing I did was reached out to a friend in advance of getting home and I said I'm going to be home Sunday night. Do you have time on Monday just for a quick coffee and a meet up and 20 minutes with this dear friend of mine on Monday? kind of jumpstarted my way back into reality.
And I was able to kind of process and talk with some of the things that I loved about my travels. And then she kind of snapped me back into, uh, reality here, like, and got me excited about some of the prospects and opportunities that came from the travel. So that was the third thing that I did just, you know, allowed myself to understand I probably need to connect with someone, although, um, My tendency, as might be people in a depressive or isolation state, is to go inward and, you know, maybe not connect with people.
But that was the third thing. Fourth thing I did was left my days, my calendar, my work calendar fairly open Monday and Tuesday. But then I scheduled two meetings, one Monday morning early, one Tuesday morning early. So what that did was and they were good and positive business meetings got me started for the day. And I'm very grateful for that because certainly I'm still in the state of just like missing my world in September and how I rolled with travel. I'm a good traveler and I love loved all the experiences.
So here I am back in Minneapolis and what to do with that. So you're catching me at a time where I'm still kind of in the downside or the dip post excitement and would be curious to hear if any of you are, if any of you are experiencing any sort of fall transitions that feel, that are leaving you feel a little bit lower, either energy wise or excitement wise. And that can be really hard. What are some of the tools that you're going to use? And I think asking or prompting this question is really about what might be your triggers in terms of feeling depleted and then how have you in the past maybe sparked a way to create some more energy so that you're not down a path that is harder to come back from.
So just little things, really little things, staying hydrated, I am myself am drinking some caffeine to just get myself to the next level of sleeping through the Minnesota general hours of sleep. I'm hopeful that tonight I'll sort of be back to normal. And I just I'm recognizing because I have such gratitude for being able to experience everything that I did that comes along with a little bit of What do I want to say? The flip side of that. So the lower part of it. And for me, I'm leaning into the processing of those really good times so that I have a sense of gratitude.
And that is like armor. Gratitude for that experience really gives me some armor this week to go in and be like, all right, let's move back into productivity and work gear. I've had plenty of downtime and it's time for expansiveness. And I certainly hope that you find that this week as we're transitioning into October and starting to see the colder seasons, at least in Minnesota, just as on the calendar coming up. And that can be a really hard time of year. So yeah. Would love to hear it even after this live.
If you've got comments of how you're sort of managing any depletion of energy or what you're doing to tackle that this season, I would love to hear it. And I'll be back next Tuesday, which for the first Tuesday in October, which I think is the 6th for a maybe more connected, present, sober, not somber hour. I don't know. I feel pretty connected in this platform because we just all as contributors show up as we are. So no performance is just literally me and a bunch of laundry to do. Anyway, happy Tuesday everyone and stay well, stay healthy and use all the tools in your toolkit to kind of navigate any any down moments and happy National Recovery Month.
Ciao, ciao.
