Last weekend I discussed how important it is to take a BREAK when you need one. The message definitely resonated with lots of you, but some of you very fairly pointed out that you can’t always take a break when you need it.
I get that, but I think you might be defining “a break” too narrowly.
Taking a break can go lots of different ways.
Here are 10:
- Take a vacation. Put on your “out of office” and go to the beach, the mountains, the pool or the next town over. Have a GREAT TIME. Drink a cocktail or some sweet, sweet tea. I know what you’re thinking: “Amanda, you’re missing the point.” I’m not! Give me a second.
- Go to bed early. Leave the dishes (they’ll still be there in the morning, or better yet, someone else will do them! Haha!) and crawl into bed half an hour or an hour early. No checking emails allowed!
- Do NOT look at your phone on your commute into work. This is a big one for us bus riders and subway takers. Try to look out the window instead. Maybe pop in your headphones and listen to some music, audiobook you’ve been wanting to listen to, or even a great podcast.
- Do NOT look at or listen to the news for a WHOLE DAY. Trust me, if anything is super important someone will reach out to you directly.
- Put “conference call” on your calendar, leave the school and sit on a bench in a park for 30 minutes during your lunch break.
- Take half an hour and do hypnocloud. I like “Law of attraction mastery” because it comes for free with the app and has a very effective hypnosis sequence.
- Give yourself a little treat: buy yourself an ice cream from the ice cream truck, buy a skein of yarn, go to a website of a botanic gardens and look at pictures of beautiful flowers.
- Drive home the scenic way. Stop and take a picture.
- Get out some crayons and color. You can download and print all kinds of gorgeous designs.
- Say no to some plans and then watch a movie at home. I suggest Trader Joes Kettle Corn as the perfect salty-sweet complement.
So there you have it! Most of these ideas would take less than 30 minutes. No matter how busy you are, I believe you can find 30 minutes to decompress. And I believe you’ll be glad if you do!
