Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that something might be more relaxing than nothing.
Speaker 1: When people are feeling tired and stressed, aiming to do
Speaker 1: something specific and enjoyable might improve matters more than lying
Speaker 1: on the couch. So we have all been there. You
Speaker 1: are exhausted after a long week, You get to the
Speaker 1: weekend and you want to do nothing. But what exactly
Speaker 1: does nothing mean. It is impossible to literally do nothing
Speaker 1: in the sense that you need to eat and sleep
Speaker 1: at least. So what people mean when they say they
Speaker 1: want to do nothing is that they don't have a
Speaker 1: lot of energy and they don't want to do things
Speaker 1: that they don't want to do. They want to fill
Speaker 1: their hours with things they find relaxing and enjoyable, and
Speaker 1: that is great. But if you ask people what they
Speaker 1: find relaxing and enjoyable, they rarely say trying to fast
Speaker 1: forward through a ton of political commercials or looking at
Speaker 1: pictures of influencers on Instagram who are dressing their children
Speaker 1: and matching outfits. People mention curling up with a good
Speaker 1: book or baking or gardening or doing other hobbies like puzzles.
Speaker 1: Even screen desires tend to be intentional things like watching
Speaker 1: a movie, playing a particular video game with friends, watching
Speaker 1: a favorite team play, or something like that. In other words,
Speaker 1: what is relaxing and enjoyable is something specific rather than nothing,
Speaker 1: which is impossible in any case. So if you are
Speaker 1: feeling overwhelmed and tired, why not choose something specific that
Speaker 1: you would like to do to recharge yourself. If you
Speaker 1: have been staring at spreadsheets all week, baking an apple
Speaker 1: pie might get your mind off of it, or going
Speaker 1: for a long walk with your dog to see the
Speaker 1: fall leaves. Decide that you are going to make a
Speaker 1: Saturday night date with your favorite home renovation show and
Speaker 1: watch a medley of episodes rather than just seeing what
Speaker 1: is on. There are a few reasons to do this.
Speaker 1: First chosen fun is almost universally going to be more
Speaker 1: enjoyable than whatever just shows up in front of you.
Speaker 1: We all like some things better than others. Consciously filling
Speaker 1: our downtime with things we actually like might seem like
Speaker 1: a no brainer, and yet when people get exhausted, they
Speaker 1: don't do it. So it might be helpful to make
Speaker 1: a list of what you truly enjoy sometime when you've
Speaker 1: got a bit more energy. That way, you can pull
Speaker 1: from the list during low energy times. But more importantly,
Speaker 1: when you do something specific, it stands out in the
Speaker 1: mind as you are doing it, and as you are
Speaker 1: looking back over your downtime, you remember what happened. You
Speaker 1: don't discount this time as smaller than it was or nonexistent.
Speaker 1: When we are busy and tired, we can sometimes tell
Speaker 1: ourselves a story that we just don't have any time.
Speaker 1: You can spend three hours lying on the couch and
Speaker 1: still tell yourself that you didn't do anything since it
Speaker 1: was forgettable time. But if you buy fresh apples from
Speaker 1: a farmer's market and then go bake a pie, it
Speaker 1: is pretty hard to tell yourself the story that this
Speaker 1: time didn't exist. I mean, the pie is sitting right
Speaker 1: there at least until you eat it. Ultimately, having some
Speaker 1: sense of autonomy is just a better story. I am busy,
Speaker 1: but I do have some time for myself. That's a
Speaker 1: more useful story than no time, because if you can
Speaker 1: find sometime, maybe you can find a little bit more. So,
Speaker 1: rather than thinking you will do nothing, think about what
Speaker 1: something would be relaxing and enjoyable and figure out how
Speaker 1: you might do that. You will feel a lot more
Speaker 1: charged than if you just let your downtime happen. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.