RE: Making Time to Just Chill Out...

when I went to work I expected to work while most people around me seemed to spend most of their time at work trying to figure out how to not work.

Amen! In my last job, in an incredibly manual factory doing 12 hour shifts, (I am currently not working after serious illness) I was paired up with the young ones, the idea was that my work-ethic would somehow 'drag them along'.

Others would tell them 'go grab a sweeping brush', regardless of if the floor had been swept 12 times or 247 in the previous hour. I have worked in factory settings for decades, the brush is the only 'go to' people have in their arsenal.

I used to say, don't give them a meaningless task that they know means get outta my way, teach them to spot a useful., meaningful task in the work-area. They were always given breaks before me, (not the done thing in that environment) If a stinking drain 'cathpot' needed cleaning out, I would do it, have them observe, so they can literally see the old adage of 'I wouldn't ask you to do...blahblahblah)'

I could get work out of them, but blood...stones and all that jazz...

Frankly, I would rather work intensely at 100% for a much shorter week and have time on my hands to do other stuff.

Abso-bloody-lutely!!!

I had a work-saying, 'he who runs the clock down fastest - wins.' That seldom comes from loitering, hiding, stepping back to let others take over.

Those folks were always the most likely to utter;
This shift is dragging.
My back is killing me.
I'm tired.
It's cold.
Now on this last point, it was a refrigerated area, but I was always sweating... Not through extra weight, I should probably point out 😁

I always thought, I'm getting paid to be here, (no matter how poorly sometimes) I always took pride and put in effort, even to the mundane and unfulfilling.

SORRY! That was not what I intended to get in to when I read the over-arching theme of your post, but you hit one of my 'strong feeling' topics. Which in many ways relates to societal decline, but that's for another day...

I think this is a very silver blogger issue you have raised, the rest one I mean... I do not mean that we are older so should want or take more rest, no not at all. Ironically, it is quite the opposite as I look around today, the young are taking power-naps and recovery days (not all, admittedly, but in general)

There comes a time though for very different reasons that we should allow ourselves to just step away deliberately I like to ponder, learn, spend time with things I could not when raising kids, working hard, never having that spare moment.

It is like the gift we allow ourselves to receive now, because it was simply not available to us before. I appreciate that time immensely, hypocritically, after all I just said, I sometimes forget to do it.

Occasionally, I will go out for a walk, not brisk, not with exercise or fitness in mind, just to breathe out. Trite though this may sound but I will watch a cat running about on the field near my home and not look away, or watch a bird, listen to it and just be there for a few minutes or however long.

It kinda jolts me out of life for a short while, I literally give my entire focus to something natural, unrelated to everything else in my life and just 'be there' for a bit.

That sounded far more Zen than I intended, but I'm sure you get the point (that probably could have been made with 20 words, not 5000 😫)

It's the weekend!

I would love to think that has meant something to you and yours, over the last couple of days but am unsure if I should hold my breath 😏

A new week beckons, try not to over-do it... Ahhh... Who am I kidding.

Have a great one 😎