Self-Care Challenge: Take a Break
This couple of weeks I have been struggling to be productive. I have a limited amount of child care time and it is my habit to do as much as I can during those hours. Because I’m paying for that time! I must get my money’s worth! What I want to do is take a break and rest, but there's so much to do!But the reality has been that I’m not getting very much done. I recently took on a short-term job that is taking more of my energy than I expected it to. I haven’t been sleeping very well, and I just can’t find my mojo. So I sit at my computer and try to do stuff, but mostly I’m on Twitter and Pinterest and then I start berating myself about how I’m wasting my precious child-free time. Which doesn’t make me more productive, it just makes me feel bad.So for the last three days, I’ve done something different. I work until I start to get unfocused, whether that is an hour or 10 minutes. And then I get up and go do something else. I go pick up a magazine, or I go putter in the garden. Maybe I’ll do a load of laundry. A couple of days I actually took a nap, which felt on one hand sacrilegious, and on the other hand, like exactly what I needed.But after three days of resting instead of beating myself up, two things have happened. The first is that I’m actually more rested. The second is that as a result of being more rested, I’m more clear-headed, more engaged in what I need to get done, and more willing to sit down and do it.It isn’t like I’ve switched from being laggy and tired to being the Energizer Bunny, but it is helping. And it reminded me, yet again, that I have to take care of myself first. If I want to live my life fully, and I do, I have to fuel myself. And when I’m tired, I need to rest.So this is my assignment to you for this weekend:
Take a break.
Make an effort not to multitask. Do one thing, or do no things.Sit in the yard while your children are playing in the sun and sip a cool drink. Or run through the sprinkler with them.Take some you time. Go to a coffee shop, go for a walk, or call a friend.Let your mind be quiet - let go of the to-do list and the worries and the planning, just for a few minutes. Set it all down and rest. What kind of rest did you take? How did you feel after your break?