Giving Yourself The Space to Relax

Written By Colēgia

Everyone needs time to themselves. School can be challenging at times, work can take our mental energy, and our relationships need the right amount of effort to sustain them in a positive way. All of these require us to be in a calm and collected state of mind so we can relax and take a break from the hustle and bustle and daily life. Today we want to find some practical ways to give ourselves the space to relax.

Set a Productivity Time

Being productive allows us to accomplish a lot but it has to be balanced with enough time to relax. A good way to help with this is by having a schedule or at least a set time of the day when it's dedicated to productive tasks. This can be when you're the most mentally alert for the tasks at hand to best accomplish them. If you're a morning person you can establish a routine where you have a nice meal before getting started on things while giving appropriate breaks. Likewise, if you prefer the quiet of nighttime and work best in a more ambient environment, some good lighting can bring out your inner creativity. The good thing about having a set time for productivity is that it respects your free time.

“Being productive allows us to accomplish a lot but it has to be balanced with enough time to relax.”

Set Limits on What You do

While it's tempting to want to get as much done as possible, we do need to set limits. Sometimes this can be having a cutoff time for when we're done being productive. At other times it can be telling someone that you need some time for yourself. Another great example is limiting how much time we spend on social media since this can prevent us from experiencing other avenues of relaxation. These sorts of boundaries give us the chance to reflect on how we're spending our time along with having a means of relaxing. While helping others is a good thing, we need to take care of ourselves first. Limits and boundaries are necessary since they help us make the space needed to step away from our responsibilities to recharge ourselves.

“While it's tempting to want to get as much done as possible, we do need to set limits.”

Enjoy Your Downtime

During your downtime, your goal should be to simply unwind and enjoy your life. One common mistake is trying to make your relaxation time efficient. This entails using your downtime to catch up on an assignment or getting a headstart on something else. While the idea behind this is good and sometimes we should do this, we can easily fall into this habit. The issue with this is that it slowly changes what is supposed to be our break into an opportunity to be productive. Relaxation is needed because it gives us the means to relax our minds and cherish the moment. Some of our best ideas come when we're in a peaceful state of mind. When we're relaxed we find ourselves making better decisions along with having a better quality of life.

Colēgia

Colēgia

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