Life they say is a bundle of contradictions and the current pandemic has unraveled a recent one. While we always pictured a Work From Home culture as a laid back, any time tea time, any time snack time, easy going, lounge about easy paced work haven, it has much to our chagrin proved to be exactly the opposite. We have realized to our dismay and shock that this culture is bereft of time schedules, clock ins and clock outs, no calling it a day, in fact it is an all-consuming availability that one has to pledge to work.
So when you cannot cite reasons of meetings or commuting or driving up and down from one place to another for not answering phone calls, what are you expected to do? How do you take those much needed “ in between ” breaks that you would have done otherwise in the regular 9 to 5 work scenario?
While we pat ourselves on the back and compliment each other on how wonderfully we have adapted to the new normal, we all understand that there is a lot at stake – a total burn out. We are an integral part of society and the world at large since our individual, small efforts are adding up to the collective big change. To deliver a healthy whole , the individual parts must be healthy too is what we must comprehend. I have realized that prioritizing self-care has assumed a deeper significance today than it had ever before.
I have adopted the wonderful method of indulging myself with treats. My daily agenda has a mandatory treat time incorporated in it. This exciting addition to the humdrum daily routine is topped with different daily seasonings – ensuring that my menu changes daily. I have adopted the practice of indulging in a daily 1 hour break where I take on activities like singing, yoga, dancing, meditating or just playing and walking with my pet dog Scooby. He is my biggest stress buster and my interaction with him ensures that I keep my cell phone away and just enter his doggie world leaving the human world and all the complications it entails behind. That 1 hour is totally for me and for all that I love to do.
“Treat time ’’ refuels , energizes, invigorates and unleashes the feel good factor for me to take on all my tasks at hand with greater enthusiasm and ease – so go ahead and “ treat “ yourself right !