Tis The Season To REST
Hear me out… you need to rest too! Too often the givers, the doers, the people who constantly serve are overlooked in others serving them AND they are AWFUL in serving themselves. If you are like most charities, the holidays are a BLUR of actives, duties, madness and community support. But by this time, you probably feel like a stuffed raisin. Full of joy but depleted in self. So, here, my friend, is some ways to serve yourself because you need to!
First things first.
PUT YOUR AWAY MESSAGE ON
Even if you can’t fully remove your eyeballs from the computer or even if you still have to do deliveries or be santa to hundreds of kids… your away message can be something like:
TAKING EXTRA MOMENTS AWAY - PLEASE REPLY WITH URGENT
or
TAKING TIME TO BE WITH FAMILY - IF THIS IS AN EMERGENCY TEL #
These simple away messages will help you take the full, gut filling breath that you desperately need. Just do it my dear friend.
Second.
OTHERS AREN’T WORKING, SO DON’T FEEL OBLIGATED
My husband and I watched “Christmas Vacation” last weekend with the kids and both of us looked wide eye at each other when.. on Dec 21, the dad was able to say.. “I wont be back until the new year.” While we both thought as a kid that we would have that sort of time around the holidays, reality is a different thing. My husband is in medicine and people always are sick and need help. There is no such thing as true time off. Now, we are not sure who is to blame, be it the #hustle mentality or #boomers or Kraft Mac n’ Cheese… I dont know… but somewhere along the way we have forgotten to allow ourselves to rest and relax. But the more I would try to work on the holidays, the more I realized:
1. I was doing poor work, I was distracted.
2. No one was getting back to me. They are just as overloaded or distracted as I am.
3. There was no glory or pride in the hustle.
So, put that away message on and put the guilt in the trash with it.
Third.
MAKE A NOTE OF 1 THING YOU WANT TO DO + DO IT
One thing that I have tried to do with my family on long breaks is we all sit down and say a realistic thing that we all want to accomplish or enjoy durring the break. Rules are that it has to bee financially and logistically possible and we all have to participate if it’s allowed. Usually for the kids its play video games or a board game as a family. My husband and I usually request no fighting or an afternoon of quiet for me to read a whole book in a sitting. What ends up happening though, by the end of the time off, no matter the length, errands or commitments… you get YOUR one thing. Then here is the secret, that one thing is your permission to relax. Your rest moment. Then you reconnect with your needs and wants and you suddenly remember what else would fill you back up and you make time for that too. Suddenly, your break is full of mindful and purposeful moments (not just that one) that truly fill YOU! Just give it a shot friend.
