You’ll get your downtime, one way or another
Sometimes horrible things happen to you.
Life can really suck sometimes.
When you find yourself in a situation where you wish life gave you something as harmless as lemons, this is what you should do.
There will be intellectual factors in this situation. If you lose your job, for example, you will need to make some plans. Things like budgeting and applying for new jobs.
File it under D for ‘duh’.
What people often forget are emotional factors.
After getting punched, right after solving any urgent issues, take some downtime.
Lie down on the grass or look at the wall.
It’s easy to think of the aching cliché: someone who responds when the floor falls down by drinking blindly.
One less obvious, but still a cliché, is the person who throws himself into work. “I need this,” they will say.
These cannot be more than attempts to escape from your unpleasant reality.
Hmm?
What’s that?
Not an alcoholic, workaholic, or any kind of holic?
In fact, do you enjoy a lot of downtime?
Excellent!
However, with or without a screen on the face?
Social media, reading, television, video games, mindless web browsing, are distractions from the pain of it all.
And maybe you need a distraction right now.
However, take your downtime first. Lock yourself in a room with nothing but your thoughts.
Lie down on the floor and look at the ceiling.
Don’t think it’s a waste of time, it’s the most important thing you can do.
Don’t think it’s awkward, embarrassing, or lazy.
There is no need to think at all if you don’t want to.
Because here’s the thing:
Your mind wants to process what happened. And of course, you can bury your conscience in distractions so you don’t have to.
Processing is painful, after all.
However, you cannot hold on forever.
Do you know those moments when your best ideas come to you? For many people, it is when they fall asleep, in the shower, on a long walk, or driving a car. That’s because these activities are mental downtime. They are so natural to you that your conscious mind can tune out, letting your unconscious creativity bubble.
Guess what?
These times are also when you process your difficult emotions.
Do you want to feel all the anger, pain, frustration, betrayal and pain while driving?
Or while trying to sleep?
Yes, I don’t think so.
Unless you let it out at a healthier time, your unconscious will use those times to do what it needs to do.
If you are lucky, that is.
Your unconscious may not let it all out then.
Instead, he could bury the pain deep.
When you process your discomfort, you can overcome it. When you bury it, it is always there, eating you away.
It could even explode at some unexpected time in the future.
If that happens, who knows how much downtime to expect.
However, it doesn’t have to be that way. People talk about releasing pressure because it’s a great analogy. The sooner, more often and more thoroughly you ventilate the steam, the safer it will be for everyone.