You Need a Break!

(Note, I began writing this in November.  It has been edited and updated to reflect the passage of time :)

So a whole three-four-five months after the fact, I wanted to write a public service announcement of sorts to extoll the virtues of doing absosmurfly nothing (or as little as possible)...

If you recall, the Busy Black Woman endured more than a few trials and tribulations this summer, so in an effort to refocus, I declared that I would spend the month of September resetting my life in order to finish the year in a better space.  Well, the result of that effort was comme ci comme ça (for the reasons you can read about in the Reset Journal or here).

Now it is the end of January 2012...and reflecting back on the time spent on the beach last October, I am ever so grateful for the chance to get away for I know that I will not always have the luxury of a tropical vacation (update: except for the fact that I will be headed back to PR in just a few months, sometimes God blesses you and I ain't complaining!)  Given that some folks believe that not even the President is entitled to a few days off, the next best thing is to figure out how to best to chillax in the midst of chaos.  So how does one take a break from it all with the current state of the economy and the precariousness of living from paycheck to paycheck?

For starters, it begins with breathing.  Now that I have returned to yoga class, I am reminded that there is peace to be found in five minutes of deep breathing.  And then there is sleep.  Sure, there is plenty of advice out there to suggest that the most successful people regard sleep as a waste of time, but they lie--witness how the dire need for sleep killed Michael Jackson and Heath Ledger.  And every now and then, it is a good idea to disconnect from the inter-connectedness of the world via cell phone, laptop or tablet/e-reader. 

And then what?  Well, nothing.

Because even if you cannot afford to go anywhere, you need to take a break.  You need to sit still.  You need a time out.  Your friends and loved ones and coworkers and those random people driving in the car next to you on the highway need you to be sane.  I am offering this as both advice to you and as a reminder to myself because I had a moment yesterday.  And it just so happens that as I had been plotting a return to blogging and just happened to check in just for a quick looksie, I found this post and knew right away why I needed to post it.

More to come, stay tuned...