20 Dec Taking Time Off Takes Practice
Taking time off takes practice. These two turtles seem to have it down, however. Watch for turtles showing up in your life. I do! They feel to me a sign of encouragement for slowing down. Image by DaPuglet.
Taking Time Off Takes Practice
I have realized that taking time off takes practice. This is written from a tin-roofed cabin on a rainy Saturday morning. I am taking off this day. I am writing you from a place (literally and spiritually) of deep contentment.
But I had to practice in order to take off this day. For the past few months, I have declared Thursdays my research-writing-contemplative day of mindfulness at my home and in my home-office. For the most part, I have kept to this agreement with myself. Sometimes it was stressful not getting online. Sometimes, I got online. And most of the time, I only got online for a non-work-related research-writing reason.
Taking a day off at someone else’s home, and not on a Thursday was actually a bit challenging. But I did it! That’s when I realized it was important to encourage you and share this with you.
It has taken me time to learn how to take time off. I had to practice.
Working Takes Practice
We commonly accept that working takes practice. Learning to play an instrument or run the mile take practice. A foreign language must be practiced. We accept that anything worth learning may take quite a bit of practice. What kinds of things have you practiced? Have you gotten good at them? Are you still practicing? Or both?
What Do You Need to Practice?
Consider that taking time off takes practice. Our culture rewards work. Our culture doesn’t even see time off. It’s invisible. In a culture like ours, when we practice taking time off, we are practicing an ancient art, like lace-making or plainsong. We are learning an ancient language. It takes practice.
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