Do you schedule down time for relaxation in your life? No? Then something seriously needs to change. If you view relaxation as a waste of productivity hours, you have no idea what you’re missing.
Not only should relaxation be mandatory, but regularly scheduling breaks for yourself will actually improve productivity over the long haul, as you are able to fully dedicate your time and attention to your work when you resume.
Need to be sold to why you need relaxation in your life? Then read on, reader!
Relaxation Boosts Your Immune System
When you lead a busy life, chances are you don’t take good care of your health. The result may end up being the exact opposite of what you wanted — sick days that leave you unable to do anything by lie in bed. Luckily, some regularly scheduled time for rest&relaxation can offset this. We all have hectic periods of our life, but the important thing is to deprogram.
Crazy hectic lives that cause sleep deprivation and high stress is manageable up to about 3 months, but maintaining such a schedule longer than that results in a deterioration of health as your body just can’t keep up. Try by starting to take one day off a week from work or other draining commitments. Or try sleeping in one day a week. Your immune system will feel the benefits of this “down time” and will be better able to defend your body.
Relaxation Improves Your Working Memory
The longer you work at a high intensity, the poorer your working memory becomes. You will find yourself making silly mistakes, or getting a little too forgetful for comfort. Even short periods of high stress affect the memory centers of the brain, which is noticeable how forgetful you become when under pressure.
Relaxation allows cortisol levels to return to baseline, as there are no pressing matters for you to deal with. Chronically high levels of stress that result in constant streams of cortisol coursing through the body may also contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s disease over many years, as it is known to have a strong inflammatory component.
Relaxation Restores The Motivation Centers Of The Brain
Do you ever notice how your drive to do work decreases significantly after doing it repetitively for a period of time? In fact, under the prolonged influence of stress, the motivation center of the brain becomes desensitized to dopamine, limiting your ability to feel motivated, or experience pleasure.
This also explains why you have no desire to eat, and may resign yourself to hopelessness. Luckily, a well-timed break for relaxation will recharge your batteries. Just keep in mind that there is just so much you can handle under pressure, everyone has a breaking point-don’t wait to find out what yours is.
Relaxation Keeps Your Heart Healthy
People don’t appreciate the danger that running a hectic life can pose to your heart, sadly until it is too late. Not taking time off to relax increases your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke to name a few. Plus, cortisol results in greater retention of sodium and water, putting the heart and blood vessels under stress to pump and move blood.
Relaxation is well established to reduce blood pressure, decrease your risk of stroke by promoting vasodilation, and decreasing inflammatory processes in blood vessels.
Relaxation Will Keep You Young
Running a hectic life day after day is the surefire recipe to run your down fast. The greater the impact of the hormones cortisol and adrenalin, the harder and faster your body works to regenerate cells. This faster turnover of cells causing hastened aging, and cuts down your youth. This is why it is important to live while you’re young- go on vacations, and throw your feet back and just relax. Work will still be there tomorrow waiting for you, so take your time.
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