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Beat Stress And Depression By Giving Yourself Downtime

Nov 26th , 2007

You know the drill about trying to save up money….you’ve probably heard this lots of time too….if you want to save money for something in your life, you have to ‘pay yourself first’. Modern folks like us face many problems and one of them is shortage of time. We don’t have the time, like we used to, to pamper ourselves, pamper ourselves and pay attention to ourselves. There’s where stress starts building up. Stress and depression are very silent. It’s hard to draw the line where stress starts affecting your life and where it’s acceptable and motivation. They say stress, when controlled, is healthy because it pushes us to perform, you see. Which is something I agree with.

But we have to remember that we are still human beings. If a vehicle needs downtime, if batteries need to be recharged, humans are the same. The way we recharge is by investing time in ourselves, doing things we like and want to do. It could be something as simple as….painting your nails, or fixing a broken CD player. Having the time to do these things is important to our livelihood.

But with no time on our hands and all stressed out with daily responsibilities, how do we do it? Just like how we force ourselves to stay awake after lunch to continue working, we need to force ourselves to free up time for these things. Otherwise, the stress of having to deal with all the responsibilities day in and day out without having the time to rest, relax and do the things that we want to do will, one day, bring us face to face with depression! And you wouldn’t even know that you are suffering from it. That’s what’s so dangerous about stress and depression.

Here’s my advice….what you do is to free up after-work hours three times a week to do something that you like doing. If someone in the office comes up to you and pleads with you, “Look, I can’t finish this because my auntie’s gone on holiday and I have to babysit your nieces and nephews and I cannot finish this on time. Can you do it for me? I need it out tomorrow”. Learn to say ‘no’. The reason is simple…you owe it to yourself. Just like you need to pay yourself first in order to save money for something, you owe yourself the downtime.

Nobody can function without rest and relaxation. You’re not a super robot and you’re not made of steel (I hope not).

So, if you don’t want stress and depression to get to you, remember to give yourself downtime. Force yourself to slow down and enjoy personal time!

For more articles regarding beating stress, anxiety and depression....and basically information on how to make living a little happier, visit http://fight-anxiety-stress-depression.blogspot.com/