Oh my girlfriends…. May I say that as I write this it is in
fact Sunday and I find myself in bed. No, I am not unwell. No, there was no
sale on 8000 thread count sheets and no, I am not suffering the ill effects of
one too many cocktails. Truth be told- I had one Chinese margarita on Saturday at my favourite fusion bistro but ONE was my limit.
Please my sisters- don’t judge although I am in training for
my glory day in Honolulu, every girl
needs a cocktail once in a while.
But something in this get up and go girl, just got up and
went. Here I am laying like broccoli in my 600 thread counts on a perfect
Sunday morning. My schedule demands I recover from the 32km pain fest of running/insanity that took place the day before. While my head says get out of bed, my body suggests I should lay here for another 6-8 hours and watch every episode of the
Real Housewives of New York City. This of course is not appropriate marathon
training behaviour but somehow my heart just won’t budge.
Well, my sisters… the heart wants what the heart wants.
This brings me to a rather new concept for me… THE REST DAY.
I am rather unfamiliar with the concept of rest day. And
yes, like every misstep of my personality…. I blame my mother.
Mama is a woman who can’t sit still. God love the little
energetic woman who gave me life but truly- I blame her for not being able to
rest for a given period of time.
Let’s be clear- my mama is a pretty amazing lady. She raised
two kids while working full time and she has a “no-nonsense” way of going about
things. To this day she is 72 years old and still walks on a treadmill every morning for an hour….
With a knee brace. The broad (and I say broad with the highest of honours) is
unstoppable.
Some of my best conversations with my mother were held with
her back to me. Yes, my sisters- she was doing the dishes and I was sitting at
the kitchen table doing my homework. Now as an adult- our best conversations
are held by telephone. She is on the other end of the line walking on a
treadmill and I am on my Bluetooth biking over the Lion’s Gate Bridge.
Yes, Mama taught me many a great things- chief among them
was that an object in motion stays in motion.
I’ve been thinking a lot these days about my relative
inability to sit still. Sure there are the odd days where I do indeed lay like
broccoli but for the most part, I am a woman who does not like to take a load
off on a regular basis. Perhaps I’m afraid that once I sit down, I may never
get back up again, or perhaps it’s a clinical thing that I chose to ignore in
order to get things done.
But every once in a while I take what I call a “pajama day”.
This si a day where I schedule to stay in my pajamas and not move an inch. Make
no mistake- Pajama days occur maybe once every 6-9 months but they do act to
restore my sense of self.
On these the holiest of holies, I lie in bed with two fuzzy
monsters, a laptop and a PVR stocked full of reality television and HBO dramas.
I watch TV, surf the net and wait for my bed sores to develop.
On once such pajama day I could not help but lay there and
wonder about the effect of my lazy day on my overall well being.
According to a WHO Health and Work Performance Questionnaire
that assesses sick days, depression was cited as the number one reason for
absenteeism on the job. And a February 2010 issue of the Harvard Mental Health
Letter found that depression and anxiety were among the top five reasons for
absenteeism.
Americans are clearly suffering. According to the National
Comorbidity Survey Replication, about 26% of American adults aged 18 and older
suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in any given year.
Eighty-two percent of employees admit to taking "mental
health days" to recover or recharge, according to a 2008 poll by ComPsych,
a provider of employee assistance programs.
The poll asked employees: "What would most likely cause
you to take a 'mental health day' (unplanned day off to recover or
recharge)?"
30 percent said family/relationship issues
20 percent said work stress/workload
15 percent said personal issues (financial, legal, other)
12 percent said lack of physical energy/well being
5 percent said boredom/lack of motivation
The survey included responses from 1,036 employees of
ComPsych client companies nationwide.
According to a study published in the July 2010 issue of the
Journal of Organizational Behavior, taking advantage of mental health days can
help reduce job demands and extend the positive effects of vacation. In the
study, individuals who took a full summer off from work returned with increased
productivity and less burn-out. However, within a month of working a full-time
schedule they reported feeling as though they had not even had a break.
Those workers who planned for and took advantage of regular
mental health days to focus on leisure time, relaxing activities reported
significantly less stress and burnout than co-workers who envisioned another
year before vacation rolled around again.
And so my Sundays in the bed indeed do fuel my Attention
Deficit Soul. Unfortunately due to my relative inability to be still, I am
unable to indulge more than once in a half dozen moons.
Although infrequent, they are evidence based. Now if you
will excuse me my sisters, I must roll over, take a Robaxacet and catch up on
season 3 of Boardwalk Empire. It’s tough work girlfriends…. But someone must
take one for the team.