E13: This is your brain on breaks: 3 benefits of incorporating breaks into our days

What does your typical day look like?  Does it include regularly occurring breaks or do you often find yourself constantly on the go?  If you’re like most of the female mental health therapists we’ve spoken with, most of your days probably feel like you’re going non-stop, both at work and at home.  And while there can admittedly be some sense of accomplishment that comes with fitting as many things from our never ending “to-do list” into our days, it comes at a cost.  

In today’s episode we’ll talk about the concepts of energy expenditure and energy recovery and three important ways that breaks can contribute to your self-care.  And, as always, we’ll wrap up the episode with some practical self-care experiments, because taking breaks is often much harder than it seems!  So if you’re in need of some justification for yourself, or others, about why we truly need breaks, then stay tuned.

Episode Highlights:

• The importance of both energy expenditure and energy recovery
• Work and rest are partners
• We can get better at rest
• 3 benefits of taking breaks

Self-Care Experiments:  

• Monitor your energy patterns
• Add in some breaks to your schedule
• Experiment with how you spend your breaks   

Resources Mentioned:

• 2021 study by the Microsoft Human Factors Lab
• Book:  The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal, by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz 
• Book:  Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less, by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang 
• Podcast:  Episode 258 of The Lazy Genius Podcast with Kendra Adachi, about the 7 different kinds of rest 
• Visit our website to get your own copy of our FREE 4 C's Self-Care Assessment:  https://www.intentionaltherapist.ca

Connect with Melissa & Karen at Intentional Therapist:
intentional@intentionaltherapist.ca
https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmelissatiessen/

Share one of your own self-care experiments via our SpeakPipe page at: https://www.speakpipe.com/intentionaltherapist

Disclaimer: This podcast seeks to be educational in purpose and is not to be used as clinical advice. Please connect with a therapist one-on-one for personalized support.