Taking a Break

There is always a time in a year when you feel like you can’t keep up with your tasks and deadlines. You suddenly feel like there is no time left for everything. Once you are aware the signs are coming, take a deep breath. Maybe you need to disconnect to be able to reconnect, taking a break.

We already know that there is nothing more challenging than maintaining your health, your job, and all the responsibilities in between uncertainties, all at the same time. You feel like there’s no room for you to take a rest, but perhaps that is what you need the most!

Taking a break is a fundamental part of success, health, and happiness. It is important to have a distance from whatever you are doing now for a while. It has so many benefits! 

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Resting Keeps Your Health Intact

The human body is built to thrive in a series of short sprints. This is why taking a break, even only for a few minutes, can give you the refresh you need to hammer away through your day. Breaks are brief pauses to work, physical burden, or emotional pressure. They promote mental health, boost creativity, increase productivity, promote well-being, reduce stress, improve mood, and strengthen connections.

Resting Reduces Stress

While stress is a natural aspect of life, it has different effects on people. Stress may act as a stimulant for some, but for others, it feels more like a burden. Chronic stress suppresses your immune system and increases your risk of disease. 

During stress, your body experiences fight or flight—physiological arousal—heightening your senses due to perceived danger. You may experience an increased heart rate and blood pressure during this state, slowed digestive functioning, increased hormone levels (like cortisol), and other responses.

The flight-or-fight response initially was our body’s means of survival that allowed our ancestors to quickly protect themselves from unthinkable circumstances. However, in today’s scheme, this response can be experienced numerous times and in various situations. 

Taking a break activates a system called the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the opposite of the flight-or-fight response. 

Boosts Creativity

Do you know that when you take time to rest and relax, you are naturally more creative? Time off helps you refill your reserves. The quiet moments inspire reflection time, allowing you to break through creative barriers. Functional connectivity of brain data measures synchronized patterns of spontaneous brain activation during rest. As a result, you experience increasing solutions to open-ended problems, such as inventing new uses for objects. 

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Improves Productivity

Similar to other muscles, your brain is less functional when it’s fatigued. You’re always more productive after a restful period—one reason why Mondays are often filled with high importance tasks or meetings; resting sharpens your brain. Taking time off will allow you to work more efficiently whenever you get back to it. Set aside one day each week to unplug to improve productivity and feel a greater sense of accomplishment.

Enhances Decision Making

The term “sleep on it” is accurate because taking rest improves your ability to make decisions. Working too long without rest reduces your concentration and can depreciate your emotional capacity. Regularly scheduled breaks—daily and weekly—allows you to refresh your perspective, and in turn, make better decisions.

Taking a break is only significant when you purposefully do it. Here are some techniques you can implement in your daily schedule.

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If managed well and carefully, working breaks give you more benefits with the little time it takes. With that being said, it certainly is worth considering. However, the challenge lies in how we manage it without looking lazy and too lied down to others. Therefore, taking breaks is as important as the work itself.