We all race through the week: from work to social events to family commitments. Weekdays turn into weekend days as we continuously strive to meet all the deadlines and expectations in our lives. Experts now recommend that we get off the grid, turn off your phones, and decompress. So we do and some of us turn to physical exercise, some of us pursue meditation, others plan exotic vacations. What does this really accomplish? www.statisticbrain.com reminds us that 77% of us regularly experience physical symptoms caused by stress. Fatigue, headaches and lack of energy are just three side effects. What we cannot see is the wear and tear on our bodies by our go-go life styles. The harder we run the faster the treadmill goes.
The more we accomplish the more we expect ourselves to commit to goals we set. The harder we work the harder we play. How do we stop and truly recharge? Each day we set aside some time to sleep, but is it planned like everything else in our day or is it a reflex as we collapse onto our beds? How many hours a night are truly enough for each of us? Do we commit enough time to the easiest, cheapest and most convenient way to decompress? What better opportunity to “get way”? No planning, no scheduling, no cost. During this time call “sleep” our bodies are at rest, our minds can finally relax and our creativity can naturally surface. The better the rest the stronger we are to fight disease, depression and other negative factors which attack us daily. Even better, the more we learn to take advantage of the escape povided to our minds, the more open they are to ideas and solutions to problems we battle all day.
“To sleep, perchance to dream.” William Shakespeare
