To chill and to be chill

Derek Zoolander style

As I type this, we are more than a month away from the start of winter (Dec 21, 2019, the time of the Winter Solstice). There has already been two snow falls and a cold snap with temperatures that are more attune to the January-February cold. So, I’m literally being chilled and chill.

But, of course, that’s a very different meaning to what the true purpose of this post is: to relax.

I don’t think any readers need this disclaimer, but I am horrible at relaxing.

Okay, not to totally discredit myself, while I may not be the best at relaxing, I totally love the concept! And if I am fair, while others are better and some are worse (believe it or not, there are people who even I think need to chill) than me at it, the reality is is that relaxation is truly challenging in the line of work that maxillofacial prosthodontists do.

It is a struggle because I think of the intangible losses incurred by taking time out.

Will my patients be alright? Who will take care of them? Will this mess up their care schedules? Oh man my lab work is piling up. I am too scared to look at my emails, what if I missed an important one? How’s my schedule going to look- jaaaampacked?!

Unfortunately, it requires a lot to finally make the effort to take it easy.

But having been on the mend and peering from a more relaxed side, I will say that “costs” of relaxation aren’t all that bad. For one, I felt re-energized to get back onto the work bandwagon. I also benefitted from having gratitude in realizing how fortunate that I have a team of family, friends, colleagues who support and facilitate the ability to getting things done. That also includes the fact that my body and health have been able to keep up (mostly) with the busy-ness of professional life. I found (and keep on re-discovering) that there is an intangible yet powerful force in gaining a refreshed and thankful perspective that can be so much more propelling than dragging on without a break.

Although it is easy to simply say “take a break”, for me (and many of my peers), this is a challenge because there is always something that needs to be done. But as Maya Angelou’s quote describes, those to-do items aren’t going to ever go away either and briefly disconnecting from them is something that I, you, and all of us, actually deserve. Because, while our responsibilities and tasks are ever-present, time does get away from us. And it’s not the time for work that escapes, but it’s the time for us to appreciate and live life that does.

So today, I’m enjoying the rest of the day off. I’ll try to remind myself to not freak out too much about it ;)

This post’s lesson: Carbs (especially with butter and sugar) are a good accompaniment to a day off