What if it were as simple as finding relief? What if the answer to increased productivity and creativity or better mood and stamina isn’t caffeine or drugs or green juice? What if it’s as simple as taking a step back and into quiet.
We’re all looking for relief from our relentless thoughts…thoughts about our impending deadline, job security, the kids’ grades, our stiff shoulder, the rent or the mortgage. The non-stop hum in the background is not just our open work space or the buzz of lawn mowers, it’s also, or more so, the highway of thoughts incessantly whizzing by.
Some of us find temporary relief in the No-No trifecta of drugs, sex and alcohol. Others choose extreme exercise or dieting as a patch.
How about a combo.
Let’s say on Tuesday and Thursday, you choose a hallucinogenic drug as distraction. Then on Monday and Wednesday, kidding!
Seriously though, don’t lament the fact that you sip a glass of Cabernet at night to shake off the workday. But do add in quiet time for yourself throughout the day. Fifteen, even five or ten, minutes of just breathing during the day is powerful.
It’s hard to go cold turkey.
Try this:
If your relief drug of choice comes in a Starbucks® cup, enjoy your 12 ounces. Then sit back for a few minutes before the caffeine hits your blood stream, breathe and relax. I guarantee that coffee break will take on a whole new meaning.
If your relief drug of choice is veiled in a 13-mile run, before you take off, sit on a bench and lap up your surroundings, breathing and relaxing. Then run. Now watch what happens.
photo source: nuchylee/freedigitalimages.net
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