By Azreen Azirinee Azizi
When was the last time you take a break from your schedule? From your life and from whatever you are doing? Don’t you think sometimes you are too hard on yourself? Everything is a rat race nowadays. You want to be the best in your studies, career and life. Everything is a competition and everyone is competing to be on top. But sometimes you won’t lose the race if you take a break. It won’t hurt at all!
Taking a break won’t do much damage to your work. Put it this way, you join a 24km run and between the run you will make a few stop to rest for a while before you continue your run. Between these stop you are not only taking a break but you will be thinking and motivating yourself to finish the run. That is almost the same with our own life. Taking a break helps you to reexamine your life and what you want to achieve; makes you think on what possible method you can do to achieve your goals and helps to motivate you to reach the goals.
If you feel like everything is not going as planned, your body and mind is helplessly screaming for a break then you really need to take a break. We’re not machines that can work twenty four seven around the clock and not feeling tired. You know what happened to the machine that is continuously working? They will be “out of service” in no time.
Forcing yourself to overwork won’t make you more efficient. Your body needs a break to rejuvenate, your mind needs a break to reset and think. How many times do you feel like you need a break but you are too busy? Well it’s all on you. If you feel like taking a break, then go on and take a break. The thing that usually stops you from taking a break is you, you yourself. It’s good if you have the attitude to get things done. However, your work won’t have much progress when you are physically and mentally exhausted.
Everyone is posting about their resolutions for this New Year. So, why not we start the New Year with a resolution to give ourselves a break when we need. You don’t have to suddenly leave everything behind and go for a trip far away from your place. Everyone thinks that a vacation is the only form of break you can have, but by having a cup of tea in the evening while enjoying your favourite song is also a form of break. It means you are diverting yourself from the normal routine.
If you are a person who have to constantly check your emails, check your phone or answer your clients’ call, try to take a break from that. You will find yourself more at ease and ready to start anew. As someone of a new, younger generation living in the world today, I find myself always with my phone. I woke up in the morning and I feel the urge to check my phone. WhatsApp group is one of it that beeps constantly at any time. There’s always work to attend to. So, I took a break from answering all those messages for a day and I found myself more relax after that. Having technology around is great, but sometimes we do need a break from it.
Well, it is probably easier said than done. Someone could argue with me that I’m a student and all I have to think about is only study and myself. Anyone can take a break, the only concern is how you want to take a break and how understandable the people around you would be. For me, I believe that everyone deserves a break at some point in their life. A mother should be given a day break without doing any chores or to attend to their kids’ needs. A father should be given a break to do his hobby. You don’t have to go out to take a break. A 15 minute nap, drinking tea or even stay silent for 10 minute consider a break. Try to ask for help from others to attend to your work while you are having a break. I’m sure people will understand it and will be more than happy to help you with it.
Having a “me” time is what we need sometimes. In the book “Man are from Mars, Women are from Venus” the author talked about how a man sometimes needs his own ‘cave’. It is not because he wants to distant himself from people or that he is having a problem. But he needs the time to find himself again and to generate new energy.
If you are having a difficult time wondering what you should do when you are taking a break, try to remember what you used to enjoy when you grew up. If you used to enjoy colouring then go on and buy yourself an adult colouring book and colour pencils. When you are taking a break, you are allowing your mind to get more creative. Let’s say, for example, you go for a walk, you don’t just walk with your mind blank. Mostly people will be thinking and observing people and things they see along the way. Creative ideas usually emerge during such time.
Taking a break is a need for your body, mental and health. So take a break from your routine and give yourself some treats once in a while because you deserve it. It is a way for you to de-stress yourself from the changes that are going around.
Carisa Bianchi, the former CEO of innovative ad agency TBWA once said, “You can always find reasons to work. There will always be one more things to do, but when people don’t take time out, they stop being productive. They stop being happy and that affects the morale of everyone around them.”
In the New Year of 2017, let’s start by loving ourselves more by giving more attention and care for our body, health and mind. Give yourself a break you need to progress more. Be more understandable when someone needs a break. Go on and enjoy your tea in the evening or your alone time. For a better and productive 2017. For #BetterMeBetterUs***