I Like My Breaks, The Ones That Allow Me To Concentrate On How I Feel
Our breaks, our parentheses of loneliness, silence and sensory disconnection are authentic vitamins for our heart and our brain. It is a way to reset ourselves, to become aware of another type of deeper perceptions: those that arise from within and which allow us to restore balance, mental harmony and well-being with ourselves. same.
Today we are going to reflect on this concept of “breaks”. How to define them? If we asked anyone, they would probably tell us that during their day, they take endless breaks in their routine. Her breaks are when she takes a train or a bus and takes the opportunity to read, when she leaves work to eat and comes back after thirty minutes or an hour, when she goes to the gym, etc.
Good, but are these examples an authentic reflection of what we should think of as “pauses”? The answer is no. In fact, these situations could fall within the framework of “active breaks”, that is to say activities during which, even if we are not performing a task, we generate a series of movements and dynamics that make that the mind and the body remain in “activity”.
Real breaks are when we establish a real disconnect with our surroundings, our obligations and, even better, with the oppressive flow of our thoughts. These are moments that we offer to ourselves: we no longer find the pressure, noise, conversations to participate in when we don’t want to, expectations, requests, tasks to be carried out. , people to like …
Why do we have such a hard time taking real breaks in our daily life?
We have to admit, for many of us, taking a break means doing nothing, and doing nothing is little more than a sacrilege in this society where time is money. Literally as figuratively. Reducing speed, freezing the hands of time and choosing to give ourselves an hour for ourselves is not an easy goal to achieve. So, something as simple as closing the doors to what others expect of us, to limit ourselves to simply “being”, is not a task we are used to.
We were convinced that breaks are a privilege, not a right. This is what we have been told in the past and it is what we continue to pass on to present generations. We see it every day, when our children come home from school, you just have to flip through their calendars to discover that they are full of homework. However, before doing them, they need to go to their extra-curricular activities, their English lessons, music, soccer, math tutoring classes and maybe their meeting with the educational psychologist to deal with their dyslexia or hyperactivity.
Breaks to play or to do nothing are already a privilege in the children’s world. They are only entitled to it if they behave well and perform all their tasks. All of this is reasonable, of course, because we have our obligations; however, it is not difficult to see, when we come of age, the following thing happens to us : we are unable to enjoy real breaks…
It is very difficult for us to convince ourselves that it is indeed one of our rights, that taking a break and shutting ourselves off for a while from the rest of the world to find ourselves is neither an offense nor a sacrilege: it is a synonym. of good health. Despite everything, a large part of the population still experiences this type of difficulty when taking breaks:
- Feeling of guilt. What will this friend or relative think of me if I tell them no, that I prefer to be alone?
- We put the expectations of others before our own.
- Bias or dysfunctional thoughts: breaks are synonymous with doing nothing, being lazy …
- Take personal health for granted. We tell ourselves that everything is fine, that we don’t need to rest, that we can give even more of ourselves when in reality we are burning all our resources and our own health.
Yes to daily one-hour breaks
Daniel Goleman said in his book Focus that the ability to take a break is vital to regaining control of our attention. Only in this way can we stop acting automatically or by being guided by impulses, as if we are not the masters of our lives. Taking a step forward, taking on this necessary point for our health will bring us much more benefits than we can believe.
Here are a few :
- Our prefrontal cerebral cortex is activated with greater intensity. When we manage to spend thirty minutes or an hour of relaxation, this part of the brain helps us see things from a more rational, logical, and balanced perspective.
- It is an area which is also involved in the modulation of emotional responses, such as fear or anxiety. What’s more, the flow of recurring thoughts is reduced to help us be more present.
- We will also succeed in strengthening another very valuable brain structure: the median prefrontal cortex. This is a part of the brain that neurologists define as the “center of the self”… This is where all the information related to our physical and emotional state, to reflections on our relationships, our happiness is processed. , what we like or not …
To wrap up, giving us breaks every day, putting our phone on silent, telling others that you are going to be spending time with yourself and that for a while you choose to be alone and feel things will not do. of you as a less appreciated or less productive person. On the contrary, you will gain in health, in personal development, in emotional reinforcement.
Our thoughts Learn to take responsibility, make your own decisions, and not blame others for your failures or frustrations.
