Take a Break Thursday

Yes, dear readers, I have been missing in action!  I needed to take a break and attend to life for a bit, but now I’m back!  Thanks for your patience. 

When life runs at the speed of insanity, sometimes you simply have to stop before you run yourself into the ground and your body decides to stop you by permitting you to get sick!  Ever notice how, after a prolonged period of demands/stressors, as soon as the deadline passes, you suddenly fall ill?  It’s like your body say, “Whew!  Okay, we’ve met that goal, now we can collapse!” 

I’m sure most of you juggle multiple roles in your life – and often those roles collide.  You have to organize and position a boatload of commitments, events, meetings, lunches, projects just for yourself.  Then there’s the rest of the family and their calendars to attend to as well!  It seems never-ending and more than overwhelming.  Believe me, been there, done that, burned the tee-shirt!

What I’d like you to do today is to exercise your red pen and scrutinize your calendar for the rest of the month, and cross out/cancel/reschedule whatever you can in order to give yourself a little breathing room.  While most of your appointments probably scream “I’M A MUST DO – YOU CAN’T CROSS ME OFF”, I want you to truly think about that statement.  Really?  Will the world come to an end if you don’t go to that place?  If you’re single, married, with or without children – what would happen if you played hooky for the day?  Or the evening?  I’m not talking about lying and taking a sick day when you’re perfect well.  But what if you took the afternoon off, and went to a movie?  Or just went home and took a desperately-needed nap?  Imagine if you and a friend or you and the hubs just opted to erase all the events from a given day and spent time together doing nothing?  Or took a drive down the shore (yes, I’m from Jersey, we say down the shore, not the beach) and walked along the ocean’s surf?  Or found a local park, packed a picnic lunch and walked in the woods, talking and taking time to rediscover your relationship?  What memories could you make if you took the kids out of school for the day and did something like this?  I’m not advocating teaching them education isn’t important – but one day out of their lives just enjoying time together unexpectedly?  Magic!

I am completely guilty of overbooking my life, so believe me when I tell you I’m not dishing out advice like some mountaintop guru!  Last week I actually took a vacation day, and you know what I did?  I slept.  Yep, I slept and slept and slept some more.  It was wonderful.  Guilt-free sleeping late, like I haven’t done in years.  My body had just slammed into that wall of OVERDO, and I realized that I needed to take care of it before it rebelled. 

If a day is out of the question, how about blocking off one evening?  One afternoon?  Grab that calendar – look for three things you can eliminate.  I promise life will not end if you reschedule those demands on your life.  Take care of YOU, so you can have the energy to attend to those things later.  February is supposed to highlight love, so love yourself enough to give yourself a break. 

Got that pen in hand?  Ready?  Set?  STOP!!!!!!

Blessings,

Linda