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

The experience is all too common: you’re up late, trying to finish something for either work or school, trying to meet a deadline. This knowingly leads to less sleep, but you promise yourself that the next night you’ll catch up on your sleep, which you inevitably don’t, because you’re up again working on something else.

Taking breaks and relaxing are two things that I think people take for granted. Sure, there is always something productive you could be doing, but people lose sight of the bigger picture when it comes to their health. This post is dedicated to why you should take it easy, and how to do it.

Why to Take a Break

Anything that you’re being productive in, you probably need to take a break. Breaks in work have been proven to increase work performance during the day. Just looking at a job, not taking breaks in work can ultimately lead to the following:

• increased stress levels
• decreased job satisfaction
• mental fatigue (burnout)
• occasional physical fatigue

At the gym, working out intensely every single day is not recommended, because it leads to muscle fatigue. When you go to the gym and work muscle groups, muscle fibers tear and need time to recover so that they can become stronger. If you, or anyone else, is consistently hitting arms (or any muscle group) every day, the muscles won’t actually be gaining at an optimal rate, because they aren’t given sufficient time to recover.

Other Health Benefits of Physical Breaks

• Decreased risk of heart disease, depression, diabetes, and obesity.
• Maintains motivation for long-term goals
• Increases creativity
• Clears neural networks, allowing for a higher capacity for learning

Social Media Breaks

I don’t think any of you will find you surprising, but relieving yourself from constant social media use will reduce a significant amount of anxiety. Instagram especially, people find that they find themselves comparing themselves to others at an unhealthy rate, which can likely lead to a poor self-image. Benefits of limiting social media use:

• decreased anxiety
• increased self-valuation
• increased self-confidence
• decreased blood pressure
• decreased risk for heart disease

Ways to Relax

Methods for Break-Taking

Here are some suggestions on how to implement a break into your everyday life:

• At the gym, don’t spend more than 20 minutes of intense workouts on one muscle group on one day. Switch the muscle group and drink water to get the recovery process started as soon as possible.
• At work, don’t sit down for more than 2 hours at a time. Use time to take a walk, use the restroom, go to the vending machine, or have a small conversation with a coworker.
• At work, don’t be on your feet for more than 3 hours at a time, even with hydration. Take a minimal break (10-15 min) to rest your legs and get back to work moving well and maintaining a positive attitude.
• When doing homework, isolate yourself from distraction for 60 to 90 minutes. This time should be dedicated to finishing as much as you can. Between working sessions, take a 15-20 minute break to rest your mind and get back to focusing afterwards.
• When studying for an exam, assuming you only have one day, don’t spend more than 2 consecutive hours studying. Even if the test is the next day, a 15-minute break from studying will allow you to process information better than if you decided to push through all of it at once.

Natural Ways of Relaxing

In 2019, there has been a great increase in the use of holistic methods to become healthier, and that includes natural ways to help relax.

Here’s a list of natural ways to relax, without anti-anxiety pills:

• Breathing exercises: breathing in and out for 3-5 seconds at a time will decrease your heart rate, making you feel more relaxed. The key is to be aware of your breaths, doing these exercises while distracted will not work effectively.
• Writing: When you’re stressed, it sometimes helps to write out why you’re feeling this way. You may find that seeing the reasons you’ve written down may not be as stress-inducing as you had yourself believe.
• Spending Time Outside: connecting with nature and observing intricacies will hopefully make you feel more at peace. Combining this with breathing exercises will aid in the relaxation process.
• Heat: often times when we are stressed, we find that our shoulder and neck area has become tight. Placing a warm wrap around your neck will loosen your muscles and relax you. This can also applying to taking warm or hot showers, your muscles will feel more relaxed.
• Music: paying attention to slow-paced music will slow your heart rate, and will calm you down. Music with a positive vibe is also likely to put you in a good mood.

CBD

Commonly found in marijuana, this is the chemical associated with anti-anxiety and anti-psychosis. This is not to be mixed up with THC, which is the chemical in marijuana that produces a high and is linked to psychosis. Products with CBD now can be found in select retailers, not limiting products to lotions, body washes, coffee and tea products, and oils.

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This concludes this post on relaxation, if you’re new to the page and you liked what you read, check out the other posts on the home page and subscribe to be on the email notification list. Doing that will give you every blog post in its entirety right in your email so you don’t have to read it in another format. You can subscribe by putting your email into the box below or visiting the Subscribe tab linked at the top of every page. Feel free to leave a comment on the page, but if you’d like to reach out to me privately, shoot me a DM on Twitter @BPlim2.

Take care of yourself and someone else.

-Brandon