Nudged: Take a Mental Health Day
I almost took a pass on this one (remember, we’re allowed 4 during the year). My life has been insanely busy recently, and this week looks to be no exception. Take off a whole day and just relax? Oh, sure.
And this is exactly why I’m accepting this Nudge. What did I call it in the last round? A “Spiritual Health Day”. My intention is to go with the flow for one full day with no agenda, no “must-dos”.
I have a calendar of daily affirmations someone gave me for Christmas. Today’s tip didn’t feel right to me, so I skipped ahead and found this:
Instead of feeling guilty for taking a day off, choose these empowering thoughts:
“I choose to rest and recuperate.”
“I deserve happiness and comfort.”
“Fun and play are a priority for me.”
Let’s make this Nudge—and ourselves—a priority this week.
What Happened: This week was nuts. One of those in which I could barely catch my breath between client projects, book promotions, household chores (how many phone calls do I have to make before I talk to a live plumber?!?), and basic self-care like showering.
But there was one morning when I didn’t HAVE to get up before dawn, didn’t have any scheduled calls till the afternoon, so I stayed in bed.
I read for a while, from a book that had nothing to do with work.
I cuddled with the dog.
I got up to make breakfast, then brought it back to bed with me.
I lounged. I feel like I should drag that word out to looooouuuuunged.
It was lovely.
Eventually I did get up and dressed and had a productive afternoon with work projects. Despite my good intentions to wrap up early and return to that book, one more call led to just one more email led to “It’s 7:30 already?!” and a mad scramble to get dinner together.
But, instead of beating myself up for not completely fulfilling this Nudge, I’m giving myself a gold star for taking a Mental Health Morning.
The Ah-Hahs: Taking time off for myself to rest is important for my mental, physical, and emotional health. I know this, and I should do better. I need to shift my mindset from good intentions to intentional actions.
How’d you do? How did you spend your Mental Health Day? Please share in Comments.
