Resting At The Inn

I contemplated not publishing a blog post today. If I didn't, I  would have broken my chain of fifty consecutive weekday blog posts. Here's why I was considering it.

 

Last night, I began feeling sick and had an unpleasant night of pain. This morning, I saw the doctor and was given an antibiotic for my illness. This evening I'm feeling better and by tomorrow, I will no longer be contagious. But, this illness meant I took the day off from work today. I slept, rested and waited. Since I was feeling better this evening, I decided to write this blog post and not "Rest At The Inn" for my blogging challenge.

I'm an active user of the tool Habitica since I moved from irunurun. Habitica was inspired by The Power Of Habit by Charles Duhigg (affiliate link) and the book helps people develop habits and get stuff done. Habitica gives me visibility on my twenty-mile march and helps me move forward with work, side projects, and personal responsibilities. If I don't do my daily tasks, my profile character gets wounded. If this happens enough, I can die, lose all my play money, and a valuable item. I've died two or three times in Habitica and it's unpleasant, to say the least. 

 

But, sometimes we need a break and time to rest. So, Habitica created a feature called "Resting At The Inn". This allows us to take a break from our activities and not experience the negative consequences of not fulfilling our responsibilities. This past weekend we went to Nashville and so I checked my Habitica character into the Inn. 

This morning, I metaphorically checked into the inn for work and I was close to doing the same for the blogging challenge. Getting sick has a way of reminding us how fragile and powerless we are at times. It helps us to appreciate the health we do have during a majority of our lives. While it's not always a fun conclusion, it's one that helps us develop character and grow. It's during these times where we prefer to perform that we must instead rest and heal.

 

This intention should not stop at getting sick. We need to build in a rhythm of rest and release into our schedules. For me, I've got several, but I've struggled to maintain my monthly one. My goal is to take one weekday off each month and "Check Into The Inn". During these days off, I have no responsibility. I'll spend the time reflecting, having fun and enjoying solitude. In addition to my one day off, I also want to provide the same for my wife. We both have a lot going on and it's nice to anticipate a day that's focused on ourselves and not work, the kids, or some other responsibility. While this ritual is an important one, I've got to make a few adjustments to make it happen. With the holidays in November and December, it'll make it easier to reboot this activity.

 

How about you? Do you have rituals of rest and release in your life and work?