Recently we took a trip, along with a few other good women, to a small village in England. The goal: to do nothing but enjoy ourselves and escape our daily lives. We rented a beautiful cottage from the National Trust in a small village that has been seen in films such as Harry Potter and Pride and Prejudice. Yes, we were told that Colin Firth had actually sat on the sofa. We ate at lovely local restaurants, drank in the pub every night and got to know the locals who referred to us as the “American Ladies in the House.”

It did not surprise me that I could turn off my normal life, leave my worries behind and successfully represent American’s everywhere in a Pub quiz (we came in second). What did surprise me was that we could fly halfway around the world, arrive at Heathrow on various airlines, at various times, in various terminals and find each other with little more planning then to say “let’s meet at the luggage carousal.”

In my past life, before lay off, I wouldn’t have left the house with out a thoroughly organized plan and a back up plan. Everyone traveling with me would have had to participate in at least one conference call and would have received a variety of emails with proper written documentation. Everyone would have known what to do if plan A failed and plan B needed to be implemented or even plan C. Contact information, emergency contact information, and who to contact in case of the apocalypse would have been provided.

So when did I go from being part of the Planning Gestapo to having this Margarita Ville type of attitude? How did I acquire this state of calm, this “all will be right with the world in due time” attitude? Does not being stressed every day because you can’t possibly accomplish all that is expected of you have an impact? Is it because I now only take on assignments I can do and want to do? Does actually stopping to smell the roses, even if you are forced to, have an empowering effect?

So what is your attitude now that you have been with out a job for some time? Is it a daily act of self-control or did a certain level of calmness sneak up on you too? Do you feel better, worse, indifferent?

And most importantly, what are you going to do about it?