'A break from what?' you may ask. You need a break from everything; from life, from every single problem that haunts your existence, from the stress that never seems to go away and that app on your phone that never seems to keep quiet. Life's hard -- I can tell you that, but that's okay. Life isn't going to be easy. Some days will be terrible. Some days will be 'just fine'. And some days will be awesome. How you feel, that's up to you and no one else.
There's this story of a tiny spider that has one main goal -- to get up the water spout. Along the way, the spider faces some challenges but in the end, he/she gets to where he/she wanted to be. Take this story as a metaphoric reference. Let the spout represent a journey. You are the spider. At the end of the spout is where you believe your happiness lies. As you go through this journey seeking happiness, you face obstacles. Despite this, you find the strength to carry on.
Along the way, in most cases, you tend to realise that happiness is never really a destination. It took me a while to figure that out too. Happiness is, in fact, a continuous journey. For you to be truly happy, you always need to be motivated to find happiness.
This is where taking a break comes in. The most incredible thing that a human being could possibly do is to appreciate. Appreciating a single moment can sometimes feel so rejuvenating. Taking a break isn't just putting everything on pause. It's really taking a chance to process everything around you and learning to see things differently. It's noting down every distinct variation and making the best of it.
When we appreciate the things around us, we learn to see the good in everything. We learn to love. We learn to cope with the little things on the inside. I have found quite a few techniques that have helped me to open my mind in the past.
A mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.
I personally believe that being able to understand what you are feeling is a major step towards finding happiness. It gives you more insights on what to do next. Mindfulness expands the capacity of the mind. It not only answers the question 'What is it?' but also explains 'What next?'
2. Meditation
The action or practice of meditating. Syn. reflection, contemplation, prayer, pondering.
One of the aspects of appreciation is reflection. When we 'think about' something too much, we might just be overcome with stress. When we 'think of' something, at times we don't even give it a second thought. But when we 'reflect on' something, we get an idea of what is and what is not. This is the main importance of meditation.
Prayer, as a matter of fact, is a form of meditation.
3. Abstinence
The practice of restraining oneself from indulging in something.
In this case, I wish to refer to social media. Social media was originally intended to connect people. Despite this, we find ourselves more disconnected from the world than ever before. At times we may just need to take a break from the Internet and all the overwhelming aspects that come along with it.
I wish to expand a little bit more in another blog post.
All in all, there are several ways of finding a well-needed break from life, some of which can be said to work more than others. Each person is unique in their own way and not all the suggested methods will work for you. There's still no harm in giving them a try.
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