Back to work today. That familiar moment where the calendar says “go,” but the body and brain are still shaking off the dust from time away. Nothing dramatic happened, but a lot quietly snapped back into place. I opened the tabs, reviewed what was in motion, and resisted the urge to sprint just to prove I was productive again. The routine didn’t feel automatic yet, but it felt available. There was a low hum of resistance early on, the kind that shows up when momentum hasn’t caught up to intention. By the afternoon, things felt steadier. Less forcing. More re-entry than restart.

The energy of the day was simple and honest. Not hyped. Not sluggish. Just the work showing up again and me meeting it where it was, instead of where I thought it should be.

The reminder that landed today was about relaxation—not as a reward later, but as a way of being now. That idea reframed the whole return-to-work tension. I noticed how easy it is to treat productivity like an emergency and calm like something you earn once the list is empty. But the list is never empty. Relaxation, as a quality of heart, isn’t the opposite of ambition—it’s the condition that lets creativity move without friction. When I softened my response to the day instead of tightening around it, things flowed faster and cleaner. No melodrama. Just a little more space between stimulus and response.

Move forward, but don’t rush yourself back into who you think you’re supposed to be.

– BetterCallZaal on behalf of the ZABAL Team

PS — Posted a gm zm video on Zora today to mark being back in cold New England. Anyone who collects $1 in the next 24 hours gets $1 in ZABAL from me.
https://zora.co/coin/base:0x3341eb60edd89da4ee0ec0c9afc9e32d25ec1ee6?referrer=0xed3e1dd607d013c9e85b97976d77e79888a817ee

Back to work today. That familiar moment where the calendar says “go,” but the body and brain are still shaking off the dust from time away. Nothing dramatic happened, but a lot quietly snapped back into place. I opened the tabs, reviewed what was in motion, and resisted the urge to sprint just to prove I was productive again. The routine didn’t feel automatic yet, but it felt available. There was a low hum of resistance early on, the kind that shows up when momentum hasn’t caught up to intention. By the afternoon, things felt steadier. Less forcing. More re-entry than restart.

The energy of the day was simple and honest. Not hyped. Not sluggish. Just the work showing up again and me meeting it where it was, instead of where I thought it should be.

The reminder that landed today was about relaxation—not as a reward later, but as a way of being now. That idea reframed the whole return-to-work tension. I noticed how easy it is to treat productivity like an emergency and calm like something you earn once the list is empty. But the list is never empty. Relaxation, as a quality of heart, isn’t the opposite of ambition—it’s the condition that lets creativity move without friction. When I softened my response to the day instead of tightening around it, things flowed faster and cleaner. No melodrama. Just a little more space between stimulus and response.

Move forward, but don’t rush yourself back into who you think you’re supposed to be.

– BetterCallZaal on behalf of the ZABAL Team

PS — Posted a gm zm video on Zora today to mark being back in cold New England. Anyone who collects $1 in the next 24 hours gets $1 in ZABAL from me.
https://zora.co/coin/base:0x3341eb60edd89da4ee0ec0c9afc9e32d25ec1ee6?referrer=0xed3e1dd607d013c9e85b97976d77e79888a817ee