Find Your Best Grounding Practices

In today’s hustle culture, it feels like you must be constantly on the move to make the most out of your day. Every minute you spend on yourself feels wasted, as it means that it could have been a minute that you spend completing your to-do list. You might even feel guilty allowing yourself to take yourself away from your really important tasks.

Unfortunately, this is a very unhealthy practice that will very quickly lead to burnout. Without taking at least some time to reset and relax, you are actually being less productive than if you had given yourself that much needed break. Your brain can only take so much before it needs to rest, in the same way that your body needs a certain amount of food and sleep each day to function properly. Even some robots need to stop and recharge their batteries from time to time, so why should you be held to higher standards than machines?

There might be some people who will dictate what you should do to take a break from your work. Although it might be useful, chances are very high that they don’t really know what is best for you. The only person that knows what that might be is yourself, and you should be in control of what you do when you’re taking a break.

Okay, so what might this grounding exercise look like for you? Well, that’s the beauty of it: so long as it doesn’t include an item on your “must do” list to accomplish today, anything is fair game. The idea is that whatever it ends up being, it is meant to relax you and take your mind away from your stresses for a while, and you’re able to take this time for yourself on a daily basis. You might already be doing it without even realizing it: what are you often drawn to when you feel you’re “procrastinating” ?

If you’re feeling stuck for ideas, that’s okay too. Feel free to experiment until you find something that you enjoy doing, and maybe have a few activities which you can rotate through to have some variety. Many people turn to exercise as a good way to take a break from their work, especially if work involves staying stationary for a long period of time. Going for a run, doing yoga, or any other kind of physical activity is great to clear the mind, wake your body up, and get you feeling refreshed after a long couple of hours at the desk. Alternatively, you could be fairly active in your daily routine already. Perhaps work involves you being outside or lifting heavy things, and your downtime could look more inactive than active.

There is no right answer as to what constitutes down-time, and it might take a little bit of work to find what makes the most sense. Judge based on circumstances, figure out what options are reasonably available to you on any given day, and make the most of your situation. You could do it alone, meet up with friends, spend some time with the kids or wife, whatever works best for you.

Because at the end of the day, there should be some part of it that was for you.