Disconnecting is vital for mental and physical health. Entrepreneurs understand that recharging allows them to return with greater mental clarity, creativity, and energy.
If your ideal vacation involves staying at an all-inclusive, very low-cost hotel that requires you to get up at 6 a.m. to reserve a sun lounger you can't leave all day for fear of having it stolen, why not? But the risk/benefit ratio is likely to be unfavorable.
No one and nothing is stopping you from taking an hour of vacation every day, all year round. AI helps you save time? Take advantage of it to optimize this newfound free time daily. 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes at midday, 15 minutes at the end of the day, and then a daily reset at the beginning of the night. Daily inner journeys.
Sometimes, simply walking, taking public transport, or cycling to the office is enough to disconnect. To transform a meeting into a stroll in the park to shake things up in a different way. To dare to come in jeans, a t-shirt, Birkenstocks…
A vital resource activity
Remember that if you don't have a personal resource activity, you're in danger. Your psychological well-being needs, like your smartphone, need to be recharged. Without it, it won't work. Your brain and body need an activity just for you. In communion. Mind = body. Alone with yourself.
For some, it's gardening, stamp collecting, model making, painting, walking, knitting… For others, it's intense sports, cooking, DIY projects, meditation, writing… To each their own.
Happy hours at Le Châtelain, a game of padel with friends, a bike ride with buddies, volunteering, raising children, working… these are social and/or economic activities. They are not personal resource activities.
A whole host of unmet needs leads you straight to the hell of burnout and depression, and ultimately pushes you to your breaking point… So it's vital. Some people feel reassured as soon as their vacation is booked, but the benefits of their break are squandered within the first few hours back at work.
Tomorrow isn't a day less…
…but rather an extra day. Take the time to watch time pass. With those you love. With music that makes you feel good. A drink that invigorates you. Gestures that reassure and comfort you. A scent that awakens memories. To listen to the silences, sometimes so eloquent.
Keep your restorative activity to yourself. Your secret garden. A kind of personal journal, turning a page each day. The ultimate goal isn't for you all to become artists, but rather the screenwriter of your own future. That's where you'll live starting tomorrow.
And if BXFM is what fills you with happiness, we'll stay with you wherever you go. Live on www.bxfm.be. Isn't life beautiful!
Written by Pierre Chaudoir, columnist at BXFM radio.