Is your body and nervous system stuck on high? For example, your alarm goes off in the morning and you hit the snooze button over and over because you’re still tired. You then skip breakfast because you’re now late. You have your lunch sitting at your desk catching up with your emails. You leave work later than you’d like but, even once you’re home, you find it difficult to let go, to unplug.
In a study of nearly 400 employees, researchers found that the people who slept less than six hours each night were more likely to experience on-the-job burnout.
As the old saying goes: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy – and Jill a dull girl.” Too much concentration on work alone with no recreation tends to make a person dull and stressed out.
One thing I do know, from my own observation and working with many people over the years, is that succeeding through hard work often results in broken families, drug abuse (both prescribed and recreational), insomnia, ulcers, and heart attacks. There is definitely a better way of enjoying going after success and happiness.
“I still need more healthy rest in order to work at my best. My health is the main capital I have and I want to administer it intelligently.” – Ernest Hemingway.
We need to cultivate “dolce far niente” – the sweetness of doing nothing! Learning to decompress and relax is vital in our stressed-out, multitasking culture.
“Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.” – Ovid.
The need for rest and recreation
- Sara C. Mednick, a sleep researcher at the University of California, found that a 60 to 90 minute rest improved memory test results as fully as did eight hours of sleep.
- The Stanford researcher Cheri D. Mah found that when she got basketball players to sleep 10 hours a night, their performances in practice significantly improved: both in free-throw and three-point shooting each increased on an average of 9%.
- When night shift air traffic controllers were given 40 minutes to rest — and slept an average of 19 minutes — they performed much better on tests that measured alertness and their reaction time.
- Numerous individual studies show how exercise, physical activity, and even mentally recall of recreation activities can have positive effects on depression, stress and self-esteem.
Making time for relaxation and recreation will:
- increase your self-esteem and confidence;
- bring you satisfaction, enjoyment and pleasure;
- allow you to be challenged;
- give you opportunities to express creativity; and
- help you experience, achieve and master new things, and feel good about doing so.
Types of recreation
Everyone needs some time to rejuvenate their minds and bodies, and indulge in these activities – you may already have your favourites.
- Dance crazy – get down and boogie
- Listen to your favourite music and feel emotion
- Play games that make you laugh
- Camping with your kids or friends
- Play with your children – they will teach you to have fun
- Play with animals – they’ll teach you how to relax
- Go to toy stores without your children and be a kid again
- Meditation is the ultimate chill pill
- Go out for ice creams
- Hiking out where you can enjoy beautiful vistas
- Fishing where you can relax and reflect
- Sailing will really get your mind off things and help you engage all your senses
- Scuba diving can be so soothing and relaxing
Wise guys
“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.” – Sir John Lubbock
“Rest when you’re weary. Refresh and renew yourself, your body, your mind, your spirit. Then get back to work.” – Ralph Marston
“What is without periods of rest will not endure.” – Ovid
“The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.” – Sidney J. Harris
“Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.” – Leonardo Da Vinci
