Discardia_ More Life, Less Stuff - Dinah Sanders [62]
Drop the worries for today
Some days we feel as if we've been running nonstop for months. Work is hectic, the social calendar fills up, and it seems like even our to-do-for-fun list gets overwhelming. When you reach that point, you need to recharge. If your family or social obligations are always too pressing on the weekends, take a vacation day. You deserve to feel well and happy. Clear your day—or at least three or four hours of it—of all activities, except those that will reduce your stress and energize you.
What have you been needing and neglecting? Sleep? Hugs? Healthy food? Creative play? Physical activity? Make time for that. Go outside and look for signs of the changing seasons. Take a nap. Listen to old favorite songs. Do something you really love doing without worrying about what anyone else thinks. Head to the movies. Make things out of Legos. Dance. Take a stack of paper or your journal or a computer with the Internet connection turned off, and start writing wishes, stories, grievances, plans, poetry, prose, porn, or pie charts—it doesn’t matter. Let out whatever words need to pour onto the page. Eat—best of all, cook for yourself—something you really love to eat. Take a long bath or shower. Get lost in a book. Breathe. The world will get by fine.
Don’t discard sleep
It’s ridiculous how much difference something so straightforward as getting enough sleep can make to your well-being. You can even lose weight every year if you substitute an hour of TV watching for an hour of sleep each night. Getting enough sleep will improve your health, reduce your risk of disease, help you cope with anything stressful, and lift your mood.
For one month, try winding down to quieter activities an hour and a half earlier and going to bed an hour earlier at night. Compare how you feel, physically and mentally, at the beginning and end of the month. You may never go back to cutting short your zzzs again!
While you’re at it, though, don’t stress too much about nighttime wakefulness. It’s totally normal for humans, according to Virginia Tech University sleep historian Roger Ekirch (as cited by Natalie Wolchover in LifeScience). Regard it as “segmented sleep” instead of “insomnia.” Relax, and use those moments for quiet activities: think deep thoughts, fantasize, meditate, and enjoy doing nothing for a bit until your body is ready for sleep again.
You have permission not to run yourself into the ground
Go slow. Be kind, especially to yourself. Unknot your knots. Recognize that life is a marathon—not a sprint—and create regular distraction-free times to restore your energy, calm, and focus. Those with a romantic partner can do some of this sort of thing for each other but by no means all. Everyone—even those in a relationship—needs to be his or her own sweetheart from time to time. No one knows what we like best better than we do ourselves. Take time out—five minutes now, an hour later today, four hours within a week, a week within six months. Re-creation is vital!
Preparing for a real vacation
Can you take a week off? Can it be done without coming back to even more stress-inducing chaos than from which you escaped? Yes! Here are some tips that apply particularly to vacations, but which also illustrate helpful principles for having great weekends and better Monday mornings.
Clear your head before you head out on vacation. Schedule at least an hour a week with yourself in the three weeks before you leave to do the following:
Brainstorm about all your open projects, deadlines and other stuff on your mind. Write it down as you go, either freeform or in a sketch or diagram style like a mind map,