You will be very familiar with the term self-care. It’s something that comes up across all mediums, something I have talked about on numerous occasions to the point where we sometimes switch off because it’s just been “over discussed”. Or we feel it’s yet another impossible task to add to our never-ending to-do list.
As previously discussed, there are many forms of self-care, but I would like to talk about the opportunity to switch off, to put “do not disturb” into play and how, by doing that, it can give us a boost of energy that we may be lacking.
Switching Off.
The general idea is to allocate some time such as a weekend or on a suitable day off where you are able to be non-contactable. This idea is often abhorrent to people but think about it – the way life works now we are constantly in communication with others, we have very little opportunity to take a step back and switch off.
Obviously, in some cases, be uncontactable may not be possible – an elderly parent, someone else that you care for might need you – but you can still limit other contact.
A “do not disturb” weekend.
Recently I decided I wanted a break from talking with people. I also didn’t want to be immersed in what everyone was doing by scrolling through social media. I needed to rest and switch off from other people’s stuff.
Here are some of the things that I put in place –
- I notified those who needed to know and told them how they could get hold of me if there was an emergency.
- I made a conscious decision to avoid social media for the whole weekend – that in itself felt restful.
- I utilised the do not disturb function on my phone so that only those ‘activated’ would be able to get hold of me if they needed to. Not having notifications/texts/messages pinging all the time is wonderful and is very different to just switching your phone onto silent mode.
- I even walked the dog at different times of day avoiding as many people as possible – not because I’m anti-social but I just wanted some peace. Lovely!
Would this work for you? It doesn’t have to be a weekend, it can be a day, an afternoon – just a set period of time where you aren’t answerable to others. I appreciate that this isn’t always possible but if you do get the chance, try it, it can be a game changer.
