Allow yourself a chill-out day

” I miss the simplest things the most during my detention. To see the horizon! A nightly sky full of stars! Sleeping in a tent, far away from concrete that wears me down here. After many years of detention, I was allowed my first “day out”. I took the train to the coast and, on top of a dune, I stared at infinity for hours. My soul and heart were filled with so much beauty”.

A prisoner of our thoughts.

Is there such a big difference between what we need – outside the walls – in order to be a better version of ourselves? Can we still do it, break through the walls of our thoughts and take a little while to relax? Even on holiday we seem sometimes caught in our everyday thoughts, our mobile phone which is never quiet.

And yet to do nothing for a little while is just as important as to write off your to-do list. Check the most recent books on management, burning the candle at both ends, can have serious consequences.  Because our mind – just as our body – needs a break every now and then. When year in year out we continue, we run the risk to get a burn-out or depression.
A chill-out day is then the valve with which you release the tension.

A right to slow living

Full Steam Ahead Thoughts of escaping life in the slow lane as this steam traction engine heads north out of Pontefract towards the M62. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Everyone of us knows the feeling : a whirl of thoughts in your head which stops you from sleeping, the pressure of the things you still have to do. When we have high expectations, we increase our inner stress. When something is not going according to plan, we cannot be creative anymore. In the poem ‘Recht op traagheid’ of Alexis de Roode in ‘Gratis tijd voor iedereen’ the question ‘why all this is required’ is raised. Who is asking this and why today?

Another pitfall can be that we hide behind a full agenda. Because the place – where nothing is required and where it is quiet – can be quite confrontational. In that way we do not have to think about our own uncertainties and fears. We avoid the confrontation with ourselves. But this confrontation can be very revealing in order to have a positive attitude to life.

A detainee has no problem with a full agenda . To stand still is a must. It is not possible to  escape from yourself and the ways in which one is stuck.

 

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Dutch version / Nederlandse versie: Gun jezelf een dagje lummelen

Holiday making and dreaming

Going on holiday is… silence in your head

Family happiness and little things we do

Home-stayers and their to do list

May, for many a month for mothers and many celebrations

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Additional reading

1. Moving around looking for a homeland
2. Holiday tolerance
3. Month of many special moments
4. Holidays, holy days and traditions
5. Raising digression
6. Self-development, self-control, meditation, beliefs and spirituality
7. Joy: Foundation for a Positive Life
8. Remember there’s a light in the next day
9. Be an Encourager

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Further reading

1. Home sweet home
2. Digital Detox
3. Simplify Your Life Week!
4. Friday Vibes
5. Vacaciones!
6. ring.
7. Year of Joy: July
8. Heart of darkness: Life in the Northern Triangle and the failure of international protection (part 1)
9. Sleeping in…
10. It’s Okay To Be Silly
11. Rain
12. Stuck
13. Taking A Break
14. Pause. Have some dessert.
15. Tranquility…
16. Meditation: You Should Try It!
17. Find a tree
18. De-Stress in 15 Minutes or Less
19. Be Like Grass
20. Tea! Coping with depression #1
21. Sunny garden breakfast
22. How to have the perfect, psychologically fit staycation
23. Staycation 2016 | A Photodiary
24. BB-8 : Relaxing Weekend.
25. 15 Tips when travelling
26. Off to the mountains
27. Photo of the day: Tiger sunbathing at Orana Zoo
28. Fall in Love with Florence
29. Berlin as a tourist and a local.
30. Spontaneous Camping
31. Freaking out! Only 78 days left until our Florida holiday!!!
32. A tour of Hollywood
33. The ruins of Mỹ Sơn
34. Picture Diary: Exploring Cornwall
35. Bigger and better: the expanded Yorkshire Dales and Lake District national parks await
36. Interrail Part 1: Prague, Czech Republic
37. Hello from Belgrade!
38. Mytilini Travel Diary
39. Shades of Greens & Blues
40. The Three Stages of Climbing Mount Fuji
41. What I wore in Corfu, an outfit diary…
42. Packing List for Women – Your Island Holiday Packing List (Bali, Vanuatu, Fiji, Thailand, etc)
43. West Palm Beach Travel Diary
44. 2 weeks of Sweden 
45. Our Weekend at the Frio River
46. Borneo – Tunkyu Abdul Rahman National Park
47. Reggae Falls
48. Britain to Bali, my brief summer experience!
49. Best End of #SummerVacation Spots
50. Relax & Get Your Zen On | White Noise | Tinnitus Relief

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Related articles

• To-Do Lists Are Not the Answer to Getting Things Done
• Five Analog To-Do List Systems for Better Productivity
• The Teacher’s Summer To-Do List
• Using the gifts differing according to the grace
• Luck
• Countless miracles each day
• Nothing noble in the flesh left to itself
• A heart in the right place and brightly burning faith