Weekend Rest...

What is your definition of rest?

Most of us will instinctively respond – “Lots of sleep”

If that was your answer too, welcome aboard… we are on the same team… still learning…

It has been a mega long, super busy, ultra hectic week for you. You come home on a Friday evening (those who work 6 day weeks… Saturday evening) and sleep properly. You sleep well into the next day… probably get up only for lunch and then back on dreamline express. And this goes on through the weekend.

Come Monday, you have to wakeup at 5 in the morning (ok… 6.30 for you). And you find yourself with a splitting headache, grogginess and unable to get the sleep out of your head.

I know, it was a long week and maybe you haven’t slept more than 4 hours a day, but you compensated it with a lot of sleep during the weekend, right? Then why the grogginess on monday morning?

Lets assume I’ve starved for 2 full days… is it okay if I eat 6 times the normal meal size just to make up for all the starvation? Will it be correct? Isn’t that what most of us do in the matter of rest also?

This was one category…

There is another extreme who go full steam even on weekends and stay active 18-20 hours a day without taking any rest at all. That too is like starving the body... starving it of the rest it deserves.

I think it is high time we understand the right meaning of “rest”.

A weekend or a day off is definitely time for us to invest in recreating ourselves. To fix the damage done to mind and body during the week. But sleeping is not the solution.

I did a bit of searching through my circle of friends and family and realized that there is a common pattern across people which defines whether they are lethargic or energetic on a Monday morning.

Category 1 – Sleep latenight on Friday evening, getup at noon on Saturday, watch tv, eat lunch, sleep, getup at 7 in the evening, maybe go out for a movie, or play games, eat dinner, watch TV till late night and repeat the same thing on Sunday.

Category 2 – Sleep latenight on Saturday (I guess that’s deserved), getup by 8 or 9 next morning, get fresh, go for weekly shopping / finish pending activities, have lunch, sleep for a couple of hours, getup at 5 in the evening, go to a park or place of worship with family, sleep early, getup early on Sunday, take up a social responsibility or learn something during the morning, sleep a couple of hours in the afternoon, evening family time, sleep early and get up fresh on Monday morning.

No prizes for guessing who is a better person on Monday morning.

To me, Category 2 looks a lot more balanced in terms of quality of life. A person has received sleep, family time, growth, completed works etc and still comes back fresh on Monday morning.

Category 2 above is just a sample list of activities, there can be any number of other activities, physical, mental, spiritual… anything is fine as long as one continues to grow during the weekend and come back as a better, improved and more energized self on Monday morning.

Even if I can’t do all of the things that are discussed in Category 2, I think I’ll start growing the moment I decide to even move from my current routine to this new routine.

Thanks to a few feedbacks and mails I received on an earlier sharing, these questions came to my mind, I became more aware and have started working on it. I think my plan for this weekend is going to be much more positive and the monday is going to be much more energetic.

What’s your plan for the weekend???