ARTICLES
How Smart Women Take a Half-Time Break
My husband Greg and I recently took our children, Jack and Jenna, to a Los Angeles Sparks basketball game. This is the WNBA team here in our city. It was a great game with close scoring. Just as my children were really getting into the game, guess what happened? Half-time. My son was perplexed. “Mom,” he said, it was just getting exciting.” Then came the questions: Why do games have half-time? Why can’t they rest when it’s over?
I thought, “Well, because they are really smart” but I didn’t think that answer would satisfy six-year-old Jack. I explained that teams take a half-time to rest, refocus, and strategize. Later, it occurred to me that, as women, we could be better about taking half-time breaks. Typically, when we wake up each day to play this game we call Life, we hit the court running. We run as fast as we can all day, often multi-tasking late into the evening. Being idle – much less taking a half-time break – often doesn’t feel like an option. Many of us even wear our busyness with pride. If a friend phones and asks, “What are you doing?” we’d never in a million years say, “Oh, nothing.” In part because that’s rarely the case, but also because – heaven forbid – we don’t want to be seen as a slacker!
But all of this constant busyness makes not only the body but also the mind run in high gear, and that kind of stress can take a toll. We would do well to borrow a page from the handbook the men in our lives must all have been given as boys. They appear to have mastered the art of the half-time break. For example, my husband doesn’t have an issue saying, “I think I’ll lie on the sofa and watch baseball this afternoon.” I enjoy watching baseball, too, but I’m always doing something else at the same time – washing dishes, folding laundry, checking e-mail. I say bravo to men for knowing how to turn off the “go” button and kick back – without guilt and without feeling they “should” be doing something else instead.
The women in my Learning Circles are all busy. They’re working moms, women without children at home but with demanding careers, and stay-at-home moms who have more on their schedules than some CEOs. In Circle, we spend time each month discussing how to make renewal and relaxation a priority. Every woman is different when it comes to what constitutes a half-time break. What works for you? Is it sleep, yoga, meditation, exercise, reading, or just taking a few moments to breathe and plan the rest of your day? Think about what feels renewing to you and begin to make it part of your daily routine.
“Being” rather than “doing” can be challenging for women. It takes practice, just like anything else. But, it’s essential to recharge the mind and the body, and we need it more than just the one-trip-per-year to the spa. We need it on a regular basis. As summer comes to a close and the days begin to get shorter, I invite you to consider how you might schedule in some half-time breaks for yourself. When you take the time to recharge, renew, and reflect you’ll gain clarity about how to best manage your busy life and you’ll have more energy to tend to those who depend on you – family, friends, and clients.
© 2007 Joy Chudacoff
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Joy Chudacoff is the founder of Smart Women Smart Solutions and a Certified Professional Coach. To read more articles by Joy and learn more about her Success Circle workshops and teleseminars, please visit her website, www.SmartWomenSolutions.com or contact Joy at Joy@SmartWomenSolutions.com.