Stressed from Work? — Here are 7 reason why you need a break!
Most of the people you come across usually are cursing their jobs. Some say their boss is a control freak (mostly true), while others are not pleased with the working relations with their colleagues. Some find the break rooms not up to their taste, or some are killed (literally) by the long hours or never ending pressures. In any case, leaving a comfy, warm bed in the early hours of the day to race to the office only to find same bossy boss and to go through the same tasks every day — or even more — with the never-dropping-pressure is not what anyone wishes for.
As I stated in my first blog that I am a medical professional and for me this pressure is always there, as it’s sometimes a life-and-death situation. Having to work the weekends, with calls, hear about inappropriate complaints of the people, dealing emergencies which leave you at your edge, all this becomes quite daunting over the head. Seeing my seniors in even more gruesome state often makes me wonder why I chose this profession. There have been times when you remain in the OR for twelve hours straight only to find that the twelve hour surgery had complications and you need to go in OR, again. Or to suddenly get a call at home during your sweet sleep to be called to hospital in the middle of the night for an emergency. This isn’t easy. And on the other side of the picture, you get a lot of complaints from your friends and family too.
With all this going in life, I often wondered wouldn’t it be just wonderful if you didn’t have to work? When you could just lay in bed all morning for as long as you liked? When you don’t have to set the alarm? When you can go to bed as late as you liked, take vacations whenever you liked, enjoy your social life with ease and have no nagging instruction in your mind about work? What if…
These questions were always with what I went to bed every day and how I woke up and dragged myself to work, until a month ago I had to take two months’ leave from work due to some personal reasons. Staying at home initially was just GREAT! Late to bed, late to rise, eating whatever you liked, going wherever you liked, working out whenever you liked, meeting people whenever you liked! Life couldn’t be better!
One week passed in this freedom, then another. But there’s always a limit to things, and during the mid of the third week I started staring at the walls of my house. I started getting bored watching the drama serials and movies, or reading the novels only. Maybe the constant situation was what was bothering me, I figured, so I thought I should indulge in some other activity. I went for a short trip and had a great time. Returned home, feeling all refreshed. But then after a few days, I again started feeling weird. What was wrong with me?
One month passed and everything was fine. But the next month it started feeling all same, same mornings, same evenings. Same walls of the house, same outside, same people. With time everything started boring me and I wondered, if, job was not that of an evil. Sure there were quite a lot of things that didn’t feel right at workplace, but those were all temporary things and many of them, if not all, could be reduced to minimum or even changed.
I was at a battle of opinions with my own self. I read about successful and accomplished people, really looked at the nature and then had an aerial view of my life. Two months are good enough to give you a lot of insight even into things which you previously thought you knew well. I realized as bad a monster as work life seems to be, with little changes and my own efforts, I could change it and make it better. I could make it more interesting and friendly. While the real change comes from the higher hierarchy, yet for my betterment, for my survival at the work place I needed to do what I could do, bring about the change from the lower level and then pave my way up.
As Stephen Hawking said, “Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it”. And I really understood it now. Sitting at home doing nothing took all my self-worth and brought an emptiness in my life.
Then there are people we look up to in life, people like Helen Keller, Mother Teresa, Mohamamd Ali Jinnah, Bill Gates and many, many other, great politicians, philosophers, scientists, artists, musicians, who have made an impact in the world. Those people who are considered as examples and their stories far and wide. Ever wondered how these people got to this point? Well definitely not by sitting at home doing nothing! You have to start somewhere.
This all, and my boredom, made me actually miss my work place. While I emphasize on the importance of work in life, I also highly emphasize on the importance of break during work. Here are 7 simple reasons behind it:
1. Refresh. Revive. Energize. Restore the freshness and strength of mind. Constant struggle and meeting deadlines does leave you exhausted and a leave of a few days goes a long way in eliminating this exhaustion.
2. Giving a better focus. Once the exhaustion is washed off and mind is renewed, it is in a better position to focus and work better.
3. Family time. While you do spend evenings with family, yet some days off bring families closer and help you to cope with family responsibilities in a better way. Whether you go on a trip or stay at home and make pancakes for your loved ones, it’s always a good way to reconnect with people.
4. Organize your life. You get an aerial view of life and start to renew your goals, work on your self-grooming and cultivate a positive approach for yourself.
5. Interests and passions. Daily work life fills your mind 90% with work related stuff, while many interests and necessities take a back seat. Some time off from your work helps you to realize your hidden potential and interests and then you can gear them up accordingly.
6. Reconnect. Catch up with long distance relatives and friends. Maybe it’s time to call your aunt who lives far away but you never get to meet her?
7. Health. Well, no offence to bosses, but higher pressure at work does put a lot of stress, and in order to meet deadlines or cope up with it, a person often leaves out important healthy lifestyle factors like workout and healthy diet. Some time off from work, in a stress free environment, with no pressure to complete a job or to be at the top of your game daily helps a person to relax and restart those healthy habits.
The list might go on for many others, but for me it ends up here. I really believe my two months’ leave has really been quite satisfying in relaxation and at the same time rejuvenating my passion. Now I believe that my previous policy of work, work and only work for success actually led me to hate it. A little break and a few changes there go a long way in improving myself and also enhance my working capabilities.
I end my blog here. I hope you people got my point. Feel free to leave any comments or share how you are coping with stress of work life or how you feel after a break from work. Till then, happy reading! :)
