In this article:
- We need to tell ourselves that it’s okay to pause. It’s okay to step away and take a break from everything.
- What is the science behind it? Not surprisingly, they are in accordance with the prophetic recommendations.
- We also need to ask: What’s burden of not taking a break?
Have we lost our ability to switch off?
Even when we work from home, many people struggle with working longer hours and harder than ever before.
Working at home, the lines have become blurred between working hours and downtime. This drives us towards increased levels of stress and the danger of burnout.
People have cancelled their summer vacations and getaways for one reason or another.
Melody Wilding, a social worker, says:
“It’s the increase in workload, it’s the lack of boundaries, and it’s just the energetic drain of having this existential uncertainty in the air all the time that’s driving us towards burnout.”
The need to take a break is more important now than it has ever been.
Wilding suspects people are doing more work to try to cope with stress, and the only way to recharge, from a physiological perspective, is to take a break.
We need to tell ourselves that it’s okay to pause. It’s okay to step away and take a break from everything.
The science behind taking a break
Science says that our brain needs downtime. Actually, even during a break, our brain is working. It uses that time to process our emotions.
If we are constantly doing things and even using our spare time for social media or a screen, our brain does not get the chance to complete this process.
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang from the Brain and Creativity Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, published a paper titled, “Rest Is Not Idleness.“
Immordino-Yang explains that when you take a break, your brain does the much needed maintenance it needs to function at its optimal level.
The same way our muscles grow after bouts of strenuous exercise, our brains also function in the same way during a break. There are numerous benefits to taking a break.
They include becoming more alert, improving memory and cognition, increasing imagination, and improving problem-solving skills.
And, if that’s not enough, by taking a break, you can also decrease the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, boost your levels of happiness, and have a better intimate life. In a 2013 article, the New York Times wrote:
“A new and growing body of multidisciplinary research shows that strategic renewal—including daytime workouts, short afternoon naps, longer sleep hours, more time away from the office, and longer, more frequent vacations—boosts productivity, job performance, and, of course, our overall health and wellbeing.’
Numerous examples of people who benefited from even short naps during the day include Leonardo Da Vinci, JF Kennedy, and Einstein.
Let us not forget the sunnah of taking a nap in the afternoon to recuperate from our hectic morning schedules so that we can be alert for our evening prayers.
The burden of not taking a break
As women, I think we are more prone to not knowing our limits and taking a break. Iram Sajid from the UK says, “There’s no such thing as rest days anymore with four kids with me 24/7.”
In times of crisis, domestic workloads remain unequal.
The responsibilities placed on women in the household are much heavier. Women are homeschooling their children, working, and still attending to most of the household responsibilities.
Most women are of the opinion that “If I don’t do it, who will?”
If we just get through this mountain of laundry and reports, I will take a break. That moment usually never comes until we lay down to sleep utterly exhausted every single night.
And what is this doing? Many feel stucked, anxious, and fatigued, and leaving them with trauma-inducing unresolved issues.
Emotions that we don’t allow ourselves the time to work through. Because there is just no time between work, family, and chores.
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