We all need to take a break from the hustle and bustle we live in. We often feel guilty if we take any down time, and then overcompensate by jumping into more tasks in less time. Even slowing down becomes unacceptable in our minds. Consequently, we push through fatigue and warning signs to keep up with an unrealistic expectation of always needing to be at full speed and strength. In order for us to be our best selves, we need to find time to rest, relax, recharge, and recenter.
Warning Signs
If you are constantly exhausted, it’s a sign that you are not healthy and without a doubt something needs to change. Exhaustion can be emotional, mental, or physical. Moreover, it is an indicator that your self care is out of balance. Mental signs include the inability to make decisions, you have trouble remembering things, you lose motivation, and your threshold to handle stress is reduced. Emotionally, you don’t want to spend time with friends or family, you lose interest in sex, and you start to lose hope. Physical signs include changes in your blood pressure, darker under-eye bags, damage to your skin as tissue repair becomes compromised with increased cortisol levels, weight changes, and you are not getting restorative sleep or enough sleep.
Ways to get your 4 R’s
Daily Breaks
The most obvious is to start planning your daily breaks during work hours. Then ensure a wind-down at the end of the day. By ensuring you dedicate time to rest, relax, and recharge every day, you are setting yourself up to handle day-to-day challenges more easily and recenter your focus. Use up your vacation days, they are intended for precisely this reason! You don’t need to go anywhere, but take the time to focus on you. At the core this means you don’t do any work. Set ground rules for friends and family. Get out into nature to explore. Do something that brings you joy. Skipping this time to recharge and recenter yourself only leads to health problems and your productivity goes down.
Leave Technology Behind
Take a break from technology. We are surrounded by news and social media on a myriad of devices. Our accessibility during this digital age is both a privilege and a curse. Disconnecting from the virtual world is a huge step in finding calm and the ability to recharge, no pun intended. The constant feed of information that we get through our virtual networks is overwhelming and drains us. Spending too much time being connected can have detrimental effects on our brains. Not to mention the fact that we are losing the ability to socialize with other people. Thus, make a conscious effort to minimize your screen time. Allocate periods of time to check for updates to minimize interruptions. And lastly, dive deeper into building relationships with real humans.
Energizing Activities
Add any activities into your life that will serve to replenish your energy, bring you happiness, and help you focus on what is important to you. Practice yoga, pray or meditate to recenter your mind and support your mindfulness activities. Listen to music, dance like no one is watching, or catch a comedy show to laugh until your ribs are sore. Treat yourself to a massage or if you like getting a manicure/pedicure, go for it.
Learn something new or pick up a book to stimulate your brain in a different way. Go to the museum to see the latest exhibit. Make a craft or find a new hobby, you’ll be surprised how positively this influences your ability to recharge. Volunteering your time for a cause you believe in can also be incredibly rewarding and rejuvenates you. The key with any activity is moderation. Review them regularly to see if they still fulfill their purpose, and try some new ones every now and then to have fun.
Back To Basics
Ensure that you are taking care of your core self care pillars. Eat well, get enough sleep, exercise regularly, and connect with loved ones. Review other self care tools that you have in your toolkit. Schedule and set goals that will support your journey to a more balanced life. Eliminate tasks that no longer serve a purpose. Ask for help where possible at home and at work. And finally, switch your mindset to accept that you are only human, and you have to take regular breaks.
Unplug to Recharge
If all you can do is nothing, that’s okay as long as it isn’t the only thing, all of the time. Slowing down is also a good strategy to conserve your energy. Even on good days, we are faced with countless stressors and responsibilities that divide our time. Often taking care of ourselves is the easiest task to eliminate, but it should be the last one.
Create boundaries that allow you to take regular bio-breaks during the day. Develop a daily routine to unwind at the end of the day. Especially if you work in a high-demand role, and expectations for after-hours work are the norm. Long-term, ensure you plan for bigger breaks that will allow for much needed recharging. These can be holiday destinations or remote excursions to immerse yourself in nature. If you don’t know where the next opportunity to fill your gas tank is, you run the risk of severe burnout. This can compromise your emotional, mental, and physical health. The longer you run on fumes, the worse the damage.
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