We live fast, full of responsibilities and with a thousand tasks to complete, this means that sometimes we do not have free time, not even on weekends. And that ends up taking its toll… and it is a consequence that our body, our mind and our energy feel.
Disconnection from our daily life is necessary because…
The mind rests… Our mind… the central computer that controls everything… we put so much pressure on it that sometimes it runs out of energy, we put it under so much pressure that stress and anxiety become life companions for it.
Stress involves the activation of the general alarm that activates your entire body, filling you with energy to face a threat (whether it is a tiger that threatens your life or the pressure at work). And this alarm starts in your mind, sending information to the rest of your body via hormones to signal your adrenals to release more cortisol, to make your heart beat faster, to make your pancreas release less insulin, so you have more blood sugar and more energy. On top of this, blood is flowing to your muscles, which can cause dizziness and strange sensations in your stomach.
The curious thing about this is that in the anxiety or panic attack, all these signs and symptoms are experienced, a sign that the body is responding to a threat that is born in your mind.
If you never stop…
If you keep on the wheel of pressure at work, of endless responsibilities, you will exhaust yourself because your mind will live in survival mode and in that state it is impossible to relax and let creativity reach you. In that state where the only thing that matters is surviving, you begin to be more surly and conflicts arise, which can make your life change radically and you make hasty decisions that in the medium or long term can be harmful to you. That’s why it’s important to rest, take some time, go on vacation, put your usual responsibilities in a drawer and enjoy life and free time, because when you do that, you reduce the pressure on your mind and body.
You come back to yourself…
When you take time, you are able to re-connect with yourself. Maybe this scares you because you are a stranger to yourself… you have let yourself be carried away by life, by routines, by your obligations… and you hardly even recognize yourself anymore. Although this may seem negative to you, it is actually good news… because until you feel lost, you cannot find yourself again.
And to get to know yourself again, to find out how you are and what you want from life, you need time… Going to nature always helps me, walking on the beach or getting lost in the freshness of the forest. Maybe it’s something else for you… maybe other activities like doing yoga, meditating, reading, writing, drawing, taking pictures, getting lost in a city you don’t know are better suited to you… find an activity you’re passionate about and start from there, get to know yourself again from your passions and creativity.
Your body recovers from the daily effort…
As I have already told you before, when your mind does not rest, your body knows it, it is hyperactive and works in survival mode. When you rest, when you give yourself time, when you slow down the pace at which you live, you begin to send the signal to your body that it can relax, that there are no dangers awaiting you.
When you relax, you reduce the activation of your sympathetic autonomic nervous system and you switch on and activate the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system. In addition to resting, you can do other things to activate your parasympathetic branch… meditate, breathe consciously, do pranayama exercises, walk among nature…
You re-connect with your loved ones…
The stress and fast pace that we carry out in our day to day, means that sometimes we have little time to enjoy being surrounded by our loved ones. Sometimes we can even have conflicts with them because of the concerns that we carry with us from work, all because of not disconnecting properly.
When you rest, when you take time for yourself, to re-connect with yourself, you also connect better with others, and therefore you will also establish more satisfying relationships with your loved ones because you will be relaxed and you will be yourself once more.
You realize that life is much more than work…
And life is not just work, maybe you work in something that helps you survive but you don’t like what you do, in that situation you might feel that you want to run away from your job But maybe you are experiencing the opposite situation… you are passionate about your work and you like it so much that you invest many hours in it and although you know that you need to rest and disconnect, you feel that you cannot stop because everything depends on you, because you want to help more.
But when I rest, when I take time off, when I go on vacation, I realize that my work is important because I help, but that I am also important and that my essence, who I am, continues to exist beyond work… more beyond help. And in those moments I realize that sometimes I get lost at work and in the process I miss some things in life… like the freedom to walk without haste, like the well-being that breathing fresh air produces in me, like the calm I feel when I walk along the beach and feel that the waves accompany me… like my breath.
You are much more than your profession, you are a unique person who also deserves to rest and disconnect. So do it, put in at least 1 or 2 days a week where you don’t think about work, where you don’t have to be in front of the computer screen. Plan vacations every few months, even if it’s just a weekend or a long weekend… you need to rest… you need to find yourself again.
