Hello Team!Today is a day to recognize the importance of slowing down and taking time out to enjoy the little things. According to the American Institute of Stress (how’s that for a day job?!), at least half of all Americans are concerned about stress levels in their everyday lives. Considering what a roving pack of cell-phone carrying, laptop toting, errand-running, work-too-much-ing go-getters many of us have been and are becoming, it’s no surprise that we inevitably feel that life is going by waaay too fast. For example, can anyone tell me how the hell it is April already? How did this happen?! It’s no mystery anymore that stress also has a negative impact on our mental and physical health. Can you say “cardiac infarction?” It is time that we, as a society, place more importance on our personal health over our jobs. This doesn’t mean you should go to work tomorrow and quit, but there are many small steps one can take to show a little self-devotion.
One wonderful way to take a small load off is to sit the hell down for 10 minutes and enjoy a pot of tea. While I wouldn’t personally recommend it, you could even get some work done at the same time, but I find that my own mental health is instantly smoothed over when I can sit with my tea and read a magazine or surf the web for completely inane information that requires no significant mental activity. You know, like cruising through best of craigslist.org or reading the latest mindblowing headlines at theonion.com. When I am feeling particularly stressed about anything, I brew up a cup of our Meditative Mind. Perhaps it is the suggestive nature of its name, but the relaxing scent and soothing taste do wonders for my nerves when they are frayed like the open ends of a torn cable wire. Like they were the other day when I caught someone stealing tips from the tip jar.
Whether you drink tea, take a 5-minute walk, meditate, take a lunch break without your cell phone, exercise, read, or throw stones into a lake, it is important to remember that you must take time for yourself to do whatever it is that makes you a happier, healthier person. Just like the glorious line from the 1991 film classic (ha), What About Bob, we must take “baby steps to one o’clock!”