How often do you unplug?

Welcome to Wellness Wednesdays! So happy you’re here. Let me ask you something, how often do you unplug? I mean really unplug… not sitting down in front of the TV with a beer, or taking a break during the day to check Facebook. But really unplug. To recharge your batteries.

We live in such a fast paced society where we’re always running a million miles per minute, and we often forget to unplug and recharge our batteries. Ever notice how your computer starts to act a little wonky when you haven’t restarted it in a couple of days? Yeah, I know I’m guilty of that! If you’re anything like me, your Internet browser has at least half a dozen tabs open, and never shutdown the computer because you don’t want to lose where you are. Let’s face it, not everything is worth bookmarking… except my site… that you can bookmark! In fact, do it right now, I’ll feel better. Back to the computer, eventually after a couple of days of being “on” the system starts to act a little weird, applications start to crash , or stop functioning properly, and plugins start to fail. It’s the worse…

The same can be said of our body. Think of your body as a giant machine, if you don’t take care of it properly, things start to go a-wall. When we neglect to take time for ourselves, to unplug and recharge our batteries, the system starts to break down. Eventually our body starts to show the signs of wear and tear; we experience digestion issues, headaches, stress levels rise, and we have difficulty sleeping. But, if we’re persistent and ignore the signs, eventually the system crashes and we get sick.

Thing is, when our body crashes it’s not like a computer; you can’t hold down the power button for a couple of seconds and everything starts back up. Our body forces us to take the time to unplug and recharge.

So how often do you really need to unplug and recharge your batteries? Well, the easy answer is daily. It doesn’t really matter what you do, what matters is that you take the time to do. It can be as simple as your morning meditation, your favorite yoga class, picking up a book and pouring yourself a cup of tea, or even a leisurely lunch with a good friend. You know, the positive ones, the ones you feel recharged and uplifted after seeing. Not the ones who spend the entire lunch gossiping about their “friends” and complaining about how nothing is going right in their lives. Those need love too, but save them for another day, once your battery is full.

When we take the time for ourselves to recharge our batteries we notice that our stress levels significantly reduce, our creativity increases, and so does our productivity.

We’re afraid to stop and take time for ourselves fearing that we’ll waste time or that we’ll lose productivity, but in fact the complete opposite is what occurs.

Think of your phone, ever get that annoying pop-up that says you’re down to 10% battery and operating on your reserves? Ever notice what happens if you plug your phone into the USB port of an external keyboard or perhaps even in the dash of your car? The power output isn’t sufficient enough to recharge your battery, but allows you to keep the phone going so you can continue using it. Working on you battery reserves, extending its life, but never actually recharging it. But it holds us over, at least until we can get home and plug it into a power outlet. You see where I’m going with this, right?

Well that tends to be what we do with our bodies. We give ourselves just enough so that we can keep going, but we never actually fully detach ourselves and recharge. We continue to run on our battery reserves, popping ourselves with additional stimulants like coffee, alcohol, sugar, and food so that we can keep going. Really all we need is to slow down, listen to our bodies and take some time for ourselves.

So let me ask you, how often do you take time to unplug and recharge? What activities allow you to refuel? Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading and using my little corner of the internet to further your well-being. If any part of this was beneficial for you, and you feel it could positively impact someone else, I’d be honored if you’d share it.

Sending you love,

David