A Gift to Give You

I have a gift to give you. Are you ready for it?

Is this you?

I am looking at you, burned out mom trying to help your school aged kids learn remotely while trying to maintain your own productivity working from home.

I am looking at you, woman who returned to work in the office, but has high schoolers doing the remote learning thing home alone.

I am looking at you, mom who thought she was thriving as an empty nester, but your kids came back after college.

Do any of these sound familiar? You cannot get traction on projects you thought you would be doing right now? Finding time to “get it all done” seems elusive. You cannot remember when you last did something you wanted to do – as opposed to what someone else wanted you to do or what you thought you should do.

If any of this resonates with you, I have a gift for you.

Your gift

I give you permission to rest. To just be. To let things fall through the cracks for a hot minute – or longer. To just be human. To stop trying to be superhuman.

Now is not a great time

Oh, I hear your resistance. There is a list of people and their reasons why you cannot take a break right now. And I want you to consider this: If you don’t take this time to rest now, your body will claim it later.

If you are a teacher or have teachers in your life, think about Winter Break and Spring Break. You have hung on for so long, then spent extra hours to wrap things up to be able to enjoy your break. Only to be sick the whole vacation. That is because your body tried to be good to you by keeping you healthy while the stress was on. Then once you relaxed, so did your immune system. Boom. Down for the count.

By taking time to rest now, you will keep yourself healthier – physically and mentally.

One of the best productivity books I have ever read is about disengaging. Yes – NOT working. It is called The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr.

The gist of the book is that if you never fully DISengage, you can never fully BE engaged. If you never fully step away from the office (i.e. checking work email while at the beach), you cannot relax and therefore you are returning with only a partially filled tank.

But often women do not feel allowed to step back and claim time to relax. Or you fit in relaxation when it is convenient for everyone else. Stop settling for crumbs. Don’t put yourself last anymore. I have a gift to give you, and that is the permission to take a break. And I want you to take the gift and get yourself a rest.