Hey y'all! I'm just getting home from work and wanted to be sure I got this out tonight, especially since I didn't post one last week.
Which is an excellent lead-in to what I'm going to talk about today.
Last week I took a much-needed and much-valued vacation down in Florida. It was four wonderful days of doing absolutely nothing; no work, no working out, no studying, no writing or reading...nothing. I literally laid around, sleeping and watching television, while my wonderful boyfriend brought me food and encouraged my laziness. It was heaven.
Yeah, I took my laptop with me, with the intention of using it for nothing more than watching Modern Family DVDs or playing Sims. But I didn't even do that. Never even took it out of the bag.
I already know I'm not the only one that has a lot on their plate; I'm a single mother (divorced), I work two jobs, I write books, I'm currently studying and honing my skills in copywriting, and I still do massage therapy whenever it's requested of me. This is all among whatever else may come up (including having a son that plays AAU basketball, so that means practices three times a week and games that take up a good chunk of the weekend). So time to just sit around doing nothing is at a premium. Heck, I have to take a day off if I wanna sleep in...I work six days a week, my only off day being Sunday, and I get up then to go to church. I know there are people who probably have more to deal with but heck, this is my batch and it's enough.
So needless to say, I needed a little break. As we all do from time to time. My mind and body needed rest and I took it. At the last minute I had put the outline for the novel I'm currently working on into my laptop bag, but that was an unnecessary and wasted formality; as I mentioned, I never used my laptop at all. The bag stayed in the same spot against the wall the entire time I was there.
I had already planned to not do much the day after I got there, anyway; I was going to sleep in and just relax. But I figured after that, I would at least go to the hotel gym and get a workout in. An hour a day, tops. But nope. I couldn't make myself get up and it didn't take long for me to give up trying to make myself get up. It's not like I get many vacations like that so I was going to take full advantage of it. And I did.
After four luxurious days of lounging, it was time to come back home and get back to the regularly scheduled program. And while it would have been nice to have a couple more days down there, I felt grateful and refreshed and rejuvenated, and anxious to get back to my studies and my writing. I could come at things that I had been kind of stumped on with a clear and renewed mind. That time away from it just made me all the more excited to get back to it, when it came time to. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and all that.
So many people are stuck on this go-go-go, gotta stay moving, I'll sleep when I'm dead mentality (don't even get me started on that). And while it's certainly great to stay productive, we all need to rest sometimes. We need to give our minds and our bodies a break. Some people don't need as long a break as others; mine was four days...some people might only need one. Or even just a few hours. But it's necessary. We can only rely on coffee and Red Bull and 5 Hour Energy (or in my case, Crunk Juice) for so long before even those things become ineffective. Eventually, your body will take the rest it needs on its own.
I know what I'm talking about with this. Back when I was in massage therapy school, I got to where I was doing so much and not getting enough rest that it eventually caught up to me...I was working a full-time job, going to school at night and on the weekends, working in the massage clinic every possible day that I could (I was determined to be the first one in my class to finish all my required hours), not to mention still writing. And of course, I had my son and whatever else that was going on at the time. And when I tell you I eventually crashed, I mean it. My body just shut down and I went into this coma-like sleep for two days. So I certainly learned my lesson about trying to do too much; when I need rest, I take it.
I hope you do, too. You don't have be a total bum about it like I was last week, but allow yourself to chill out sometimes; it's good for you.
Now, I have a presentation to work on...I appreciate you!
#loveandbooks
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