Take a Break!
When you’ve got a student loan payment to make, heartburn, a heavy workload, and your car acts like it doesn’t want to start up, are you Zen and calm? Or does it feel like your head is about to explode?
Life brings stress, and the older we get the more stress we seem to collect. When stress becomes too much, our bodies tend to show it with illness. Ailments such as high blood pressure, hypertension, ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, and even asthma have been linked to stress. How we deal with stress and what we are stressed about varies. From debt to children to work, we all have our own stress. So, what do we need to do to help us relax?
Apparently, the best way to relieve stress is to do nothing at all. Let’s be honest, in today’s society binge-watching your favorite Netflix show, ignoring calls to lay around in your pajamas all day, and reading a nice book with your puppy napping in the crease of your knee are all considered lazy and not the best use of your time. But does science say otherwise?
According to experts, laziness might in fact be good for your health! So, when those 15-minute breaks turn into 25 minutes, or that one email you ignored becomes a 2-hour mute break, just know you are doing it for your health! In fact, there is a scientific basis that napping during the day has some awesome stress-busting benefits! A study by Allegheny College in Pennsylvania states, taking a nap for “45 minutes to an hour helps lower your blood pressure after a stressful event.” So, if work’s stressing you out, try taking a quick nap during your lunch break!
Taking a lazy day also prevents you from being burnt out. By giving your brain some much-needed rest, it helps you realize you may be overworking yourself. As Dr. Isabelle Moreau told The Independent, "We should go for slow work as we go for slow food: quality over quantity, with spare time left to rest and think, not just to produce," adding, "boredom and laziness should be used as a means to regain control over one’s own body and one’s own time."
No matter what is going on in life, never forget to put yourself first and have some alone time. We tend to forget how draining it is trying to be everywhere for everyone until our bodies shut down. A lazy day a week can help you sleep better at night, regain focus, lower your blood pressure, and help your self-esteem! Don’t cheat yourself, treat yourself—to a lazy day that is!
