Ode to Breaks
When I have a list I want to go go go until the list is done. With my inbox, I want to go go go until the inbox is empty. But it’s not realistic or wise or even possible. It’s actually not a great goal to get everything done: it’s a horrible goal. First, it’s not possible. Second, when I’m focused on only getting everything done, I find myself disappointed: the moment of completion is anticlimactic even though I think that the feeling of completion will make me so happy.
Sometimes I remember to take a break.
Today I put in my airpods and listened to Matthew Nathanson song’s “Run” to give myself a break. That helped me for thirty minutes, but I still wanted another break. I grabbed my phone and airpods and school ID badge and walked outside. I walked around the block for thirty minutes, talking on the phone with my friend Cecilia.
One day I shut my office door, sat up against it, put a three minute timer on and meditated.
Another day I walked over to the athletic building, sat on the side, leaning against the brick, in the sun, set a timer and closed my eyes for four minutes.
I take walks.
I close my eyes.
I play a song.
I call a friend.
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I stop working.
I think about something else.
And then, after three minutes or ten minutes or three hours, I’m okay again. I can think and work and be productive. But first, the break. The break is the off-on switch that the IT office teaches us again and again to use to get a device working again. It’s the reset.
Breaks. I need to keep taking breaks, whether I’m at home or at work. The last two days when I got home from work I hollered hello and then went straight upstairs to wash up and change into comfy clothes.
This week we are not sitting down for family dinner (thank you NY Times article!). We are sitting on the couch and watching Jeopardy while we eat dinner. This, too, is a break.
A beach. I could go sometimes.
NY Times games. Those help, too.
My friends.
I need to remember to take breaks the non-smoking smoking breaks Americans used to take, the coffee breaks the Italians take (which I joined only rarely when I lived there), the extra hang out dining hall time college kids take.
We can all find them. Make them happen. Rest. Reset.
