I hate being the odd ball.You know the one person who’s trying not to bring attention to themselves while simultaneously doing the opposite of what almost everyone else is doing. That’s me and that needs to be you if you don’t want to burnout or if you’re feeling crispy and need to change the direction of how things have been going.
So, here’s an against the tide thing that I do that helps keep burnout at bay. Once a week, my family and I have a day of rest. We go to church, take naps, go on long-slow walks, read fiction book, draw, play games, talk, and laugh and at the end of the day, we gather around a bowl of deliciousness and eat together. We do this every single week, and it has been life to our souls.
Rest is not a reward; it is necessary for our survival, and it is an antidote for burnout.
This is not a new concept at all. It was just new to us. People say, “How do you do that?” “Sounds like it would be hard”. I tell them, “It is hard.” But just because it's hard doesn't mean it's not worth it.
Here's how we did it:
🔆 Prepare: Preparation is key. We cook, clean, and run errands before our day of rest. Knowing that it is coming helps us to get creative about how to get things done ahead of time.
🔆 Boundaries: We say “no” to activities and events that fall on our rest day. We unplug from social media, news, etc. as a means of setting mental boundaries around what we will let in.
🔆 Check-in: We recalibrated our rest meter by noticing the moment when a restful activity like reading a book suddenly becomes a productive activity, finishing the book in one sitting. By checking in with our bodies and asking the question “Does this feel like rest?” we can stop ourselves from making rest another to-do.
🔆 Experiment: We experiment a lot to figure out what works for our family. If something did not work, we modify or eliminate it.
🔆 Speak to it: In the beginning, I noticed a nagging “You need to do something productive” mantra showing up in my thoughts. This is a withdrawal symptom of busyness. It robs us of the joy of rest. Instead of ignoring it. I decided to think of a new mantra to say when this comes up. Mine is "Rest helps me recharge. I am choosing to rest."
Knowing that going against the tide means not burning out, what opposite thing will you commit to?