Back in the day, many held to the practice of honoring the Sabbath. From the Judeo-Christian faith, this meant typically observing a day of rest on Saturdays or Sundays. On this day, no household chores (aside from meal prep etc.) occurred. As our society progressed, we have gotten away from this tradition because we all have so much to do and so little time. Unfortunately, many of us, and we include ourselves, struggle with burnout because we are always on the go.
Burnout is a real thing. We see it in our patients at Caring Medical too. People experience an overwhelming sense of failure and doubt, depression, lack of confidence and motivation, and feel extremely exhausted, lacking energy, feeling completely drained. With this comes increased conflict with anyone you come in contact with – family, friends, and workmates. Throw in what is happening to our society at large right now and you have a set up for disaster.
Most of us want to have energy, love our jobs, enjoy our friends and family – basically love life. But if we are starting the downward spiral, it’s time to do something about it.
A day of rest. As hard as this is for us to do, we highly recommend it. This is a day that is planned in the calendar to rest, relax, be in the moment (vs every minute planned), and a time to cultivate and nurture relationships with our tribes! Or if you are with people every day of the week, maybe you need to spend some time alone?
Our bodies need to rest in order to function optimally. We will actually be more productive during the other 6 days of the week if we take a day to rest our minds, bodies, and spirts. What does that look like? It is different for each of us. We recommend considering anything that feels like work should not be done on this day. Some find cooking energizing, while others find it overwhelming. Some love gardening while others hate it. Reading a book may calm your mind and allow you to forget about the rest of your to-do list for a while.
We also ask that you consider a “digital Sabbath” – in that you intentionally and significantly reduce your connectivity to your devices – phones, ipads, video games, television, or any electronic gizmo. Our brains are in constant states of over-processing, as you read from last week’s article, and are unable to drain properly. It may seem impossible to disconnect completely, so start with significantly reducing it. Put the phones away in another part of the house. Keep the TV/gaming stations turned off. Turn off the TV.
Then…rest. Pick a day of rest and make it your own.