"Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes...including you."
-Anne Lamott
Today in a world full of meetings, duties, chores we often prioritize everyone else’s needs before our own because we don’t want to feel guilty but that’s not healthy for our minds, such situations lead to burnout. During such times, we often forget the importance of “Self Time”. Self-time is taking off time from your regular day to do something that makes you feel relaxed, happy, and emotionally nourished. We need to remember that taking out time for ourselves is as important as completing our responsibilities and duties. It is high time we take mental health seriously and prevent major health issues like burnout.
“Burnout”, many people may know what it is but not many realize the symptoms of the same. Many people relate burnout to ordinary fatigue and stress but this is a much worse issue and highly needs to be addressed because if ignored it can lead to serious physical and psychological illnesses like depression, heart disease, and diabetes. The main signs of a person suffering from burnout are exhaustion, isolation, escape fantasies, irritability, denial, withdrawal, behavioral changes, depersonalization, depression. However, burnout can be very well prevented by exercising daily, eating a balanced diet, practicing good eating habits, and during major cases asking for help.
Self-time is another way of preventing not only burnout but also keep us mentally happy and to know ourselves more. This should not necessarily include something new you would want to learn, but can include the smallest of things like reading a book, meditation, cooking a meal for yourself, take a nap, connecting with yourself, and find your spiritual center. The benefits of having Self-time are reduced stress; if we don’t prioritise self-time we might feel more exhausted, rebooting of the brain leading to a more productive mind, improving concentration to find a solution to problems more effectively, improving your relationships, it helps energize you more and put you in a better position to love and support the people you care and worry about.
Self-love is a state of appreciation for oneself that expands from actions that support our physical, psychological, and spiritual growth. Self-time can lead to self-love and there are many ways in which self-care can be practiced like giving yourself a break from self-judgment, trusting yourself, being true to yourself, setting healthy boundaries. Practicing these small activities can help you transform all the negative thoughts of yourself into positive thoughts and also foster self-beliefs.
Many of us still believe that spending time on ourselves is not worth it and it is better to be involved in some or other work but success should not only be measured in terms of acquisition and accomplishment but also on the happiness that you feel. It might be a bit different at the start to incorporate this habit in our daily lives but we need to learn to perform “Absenteeism” in our life. Absenteeism from our duties and responsibilities. It makes us independent also, we don’t have to rely upon emotional support to make us happy and can have our ways. At the end of the day being a bit selfish and thinking about yourself and your health can be very beneficial. Make sure at the end of the day you need to let your brain rest, unwind and clear up a little bit. Start treating yourself better and start smiling more.
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