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by Brian G. Daigle  The holidays are upon us and that means days off. Or does it? This is the most popular time of year for employees and school children to take breaks from their work, to step back, to “unplug” from their daily activities of work and school. However, this often doesn’t happen, especially for professionals in fast-paced, high-demand jobs. And it is increasingly more difficult as we have multiple devices throughout the day speaking to us, calling our attention back to the work from which we are trying to walk. Because we are incarnate beings, and because our physical bodies are crucial in both work and rest, in labor and leisure, it is important, if we truly want a break, that we pay close attention to how we enact our bodies to ensure such rest. Below are a few tips on how to think about using your body to take a break this holiday season: Eyes. Put work-related items out of sight. Put high-paced and high-demand electronics out of sight. If you put your laptop in a brief case, put your briefcase in a room, but not just any room. It must go in the room where you least often visit. Make it weird. Put your laptop case in that cabinet where you may go once a month to look for that random thing you think you once had. This also includes your cell phone. Truly, put it away, somewhere you may forget about. If you were wanting a break from television, take the television off the wall, and put it in the garage. This is one of the reasons why people leave for vacations: it gives them something different to look at, and this is good for putting the attention of our hearts and minds elsewhere. However, even on vacations our personal items (like laptops and cell phones) come with us, and we are visually reminded of the work from which we are trying to depart. If there is an object that indirectly calls to your mind back to work, then put that away too. Think about going on your vacation with a different wallet, a different jacket, a different pair of shoes, a different coffee mug than the one you use each morning. Adjust the lighting differently throughout the rooms in your house. Use more light; use less light. Use different light. Take a break from those visual cues which directly or indirectly beckon your imagination and memory back to your work. Be creative about it.
Ears. Similar to sight, things must be out of earshot. Often times when I take a lunch break during the workday, and I truly need it to be a break, if I forget to turn off the audio to my computer, or I forget to turn off the vibrate button on my phone (yes, vibrate), then my attention and mind will not take a break; I will hear the ding or buzz or alert and I will be called back, ever so slightly in my imagination and emotions to my work. “Ding!” I hear across the room, and I know I just got an email. I, therefore, will not get a break. During your break tut other and different sounds around you. Go sit amidst sounds you normally don’t hear during the workday. This is why the beach is often a good place to break from work: not many people hear ocean waves all day. We make these break-time decisions subconsciously sometimes, but we should be more purposeful during our breaks. Turn on music; put on different music than what you hear at work. My workweek focus music is different than my school break focus music. And if I don’t do that, and I accidentally put on my workweek focus music during my break, I am then subtly but strongly encouraged to think about work, to desire work, to do the work from which I need a break. Feed your ears with something else and block access from the things that stimulate your mind back to work, to ensure you use your ears well to take a good break. Nose. Smell is a powerful thing. I sometimes think that because we underestimate the power of smell so often then it is even more potent when it enacts a memory or evokes in us one emotion rather than another. Smell and memory are uniquely linked in powerful ways. Use that to your advantage. Light a different smelling candle than you are used to. Use different perfume or cologne than you use during your workweek. Try different laundry detergent for a break. Cook a different meal; use a spice during your break that you would rarely use during workweek meals. Surround yourself with olfactory allies who insist you forget about work and think about something entirely different. Outside smells, smells in nature will do this, especially because the vast majority of our modern worktime occurs inside, in filtered air, with all kinds of daily and familiar smells. Get creative with how you smell your way to a true break. Mouth. Similar to smell and sound, what are those flavor profiles you most associate with work? I know it sounds weird, but you have them, because you have eating habits. For me, its mixed nuts and a protein bar at lunch, and there are about five flavors (though one brand) through which I rotate. If I am eating that, I am in work mode. So, during breaks, I don’t eat that. I find other ways to stay in the eating habits I love and yet separate from my workweek habits. Try a new restaurant. Even change up your eating schedule, but not to the point where you don’t stick to your goals. Don’t go eat at that restaurant where you eat during your workweek. I don’t care how much you love it; it will still be there, and if it isn’t still there when you get back from your break then you will have to look for a new favorite anyways. You might as well explore now. Let your dietary habits take a break as well; let gastronomy guide your rest. Touch. Finally, interact with touch differently. Give more hugs. Get more hugs. Give fewer hugs. Get fewer hugs. Wear different clothes. Wear no clothes. Go somewhere cold if you live and work somewhere warm. Go somewhere warm if you live and work somewhere cold. Do you normally work inside, without a breeze? Go outside with a breeze. Change your workout routine. Let your beard grow out. Shave your beard. Tell your body, by way of touch, “Things will be different around here for the next few days; get used to it.” Use a different comforter for sleeping. Change your sheets. Sleep in a different bed. Shower in a different bathroom. Use colder water or hotter water than you normally use. Try different body wash, a different scent even. Let your leg hair grow out, ladies. Don’t be ashamed. Your body needs to know you will be at a different pace for a few days, or a few weeks. Perhaps don’t do all of those at once; you may shock your system. But do some of them, and alter how and what and when you physically feel things during your break from work. The holiday season is a uniquely situated time to tell our bodies we are on a break, because it is a season of distinct and sensory overload. How often, during your workweek, do you have a tree in your living room or at the office? Holiday smells and flavors are also unique. But we still must be purposeful with our senses during each and every break, especially when we are home. If you do this, in all five areas of our senses, what will happen is that you will create “rest rituals” and not just “holiday rituals.” And you may even invite others to participate in those with you. Maybe all the women in the family choose to let their leg hair grow out during breaks! (You’re welcome, gentlemen.) Maybe all the men grow their beards out! (You’re welcome, ladies). Maybe you find new flavors or sights or sounds or music or candles you didn’t even know you could love. Maybe, just maybe, as your body rests and you lean into leisure, new and undiscovered parts of you come parading out, now visible in the light, and ready for a dialogue. Maybe that part of you needs to show up more often during your workweek or on weekends, or when your workday is done. Our bodies cannot be neglected, at any point of our human existence, if we want to live happy lives. And this is most especially true regarding leisure. We all know when we need to take a break from working out, we either workout different muscles (thereby give our other muscles a break) or we stop workout out altogether for a few days. But we cannot do that with our senses. Our five senses are almost always equally enacted during breaks as they are during work. However, that is one consideration: which of your five senses do you use most for work? Rest that one. Lean into the others more. I use my eyes more for work now (on a computer screen) than I ever have in my career. I should rest my eyes over the break, especially a rest from screens. But that is just the beginning and the most obvious one. If we want to take a break from work or school or an arduous season of life or a difficult task or a difficult project, we must befriend our body and ask it to lead the way, to inform the rest of ourselves that we are going on a brief hiatus from the workweek normal. If we do this, rest will be sweeter; our bodies, hearts, minds, and souls will thank us, and so will those who rely upon us and who live alongside us, for whether we rest well or not has deep implications on the kinds of people we become.
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