I recently came across a quote which I wanted to share with you:
“When you are resting because you are worn out, you need to remember you are not wasting time. You are doing exactly what you need to do. You are recovering.”
Tiny budha
This appealed to me for several reasons. The main one being that we all try and pack so much into every single day, otherwise we feel we are wasting time, and not being productive enough. Even if we’ve been busy for a period of time, taking time out to recover or rest still makes us feel guilty.
Not only do we work to our full capacity each day, but we try and cram even more in, as inevitably more work comes in and what happens? We still don’t take that time out.
It seems ingrained in us that we should always keep going full speed each day, otherwise we’re not doing enough!
It’s like the way we were taught to eat. Most of us were brought up to eat everything that was on our plate, whether we liked it or not, whether we were full up to the brim or not, we had to clear the plate, otherwise we were made to feel bad, because of all the starving people in Africa!
As adults most of us still feel that pang of guilt if we leave one small morsel on the plate thinking about the message that was delivered to us as growing children.
We should follow the example of the emergency procedure in an aircraft. We must apply our own oxygen mask before helping those around us, i.e. children. If we don’t take care of ourselves then we can’t help others.
That goes for not overdoing things so much that we wear ourselves out and then can’t provide for us or our loved one, let alone our clients.
What is the lesson here?
Don’t work to full capacity, instead allow some time to incorporate any last-minute tasks so we don’t over-fill ourselves making ourselves sick.
Take time out to recover and rest because you do deserve it and don’t feel guilty but enjoy the moment of relaxation.
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