Piling up bills. Looming deadlines. Pending phone messages. Overflowing email in-boxes. Packed daily schedules. Sound familiar? It is sometimes uncanny just how fast time seems to go by. Too often, if we are not careful, we are going to miss our chance of truly living life. We can never take back the last hour, the last day, or the last month. We can, however, choose to live intentionally each day in the future. It’s easy to get caught up in the rat-race and go through each day not living intentionally. This places more stress on us and can ruin our health.
I am starting my week feeling rested, refreshed and rejuvenated. My family and I just took a family “staycation“. This is when you go on a vacation but never leave your house. My wife and I planned special things to do for the kids each day and we stayed right here in Bismarck and Mandan. We went fishing, played mini golf, and went sightseeing around town. During this time we intentionally did a few things to help us have a great time together, build family memories, and rejuvenate ourselves mentally.
(1) We Cleared Our Calendar
Our staycation was marked on our calendar. Each day we had our agenda planned and were excited to share with the kids the next fun thing we were going to do together as a family. When clearing the calendar, it meant I had to do some re-organization of my schedule and make room for the truly important things in life…making memories! You can choose a “rejuvenate for 48” period time block on your calendar as well. Mark it down and make it happen!
(2) We Removed Distractions
I am writing this post much later than I normally do. Why? I didn’t bring home my work from the office. My laptop stayed in the office. The massive to-do lists sit waiting for me tomorrow morning. I silenced incoming phone calls. When we were fishing, playing golf, or just sitting around talking it was done without interruptions. This allowed my children to know what they were saying was important and it was a great stress reliever for me.
(3) We Created Intentional Memories
We lived in the moment. We enjoyed the journey. There was no pressure to rush off to the next thing, the bigger attraction, etc. We enjoyed each present moment. I took the time to watch my boys cast their fishing line. The constant need for hook rebaiting and lure changing became a teaching moment and not an inconvenience. We were on vacation. We had nowhere to be. We had all the time in the world. When my boys drove around in the go-carts and my little princess went around on the swing I can tell you all about the expressions on their little faces because I chose to create an intentional memory.
(4) We Disconnected
I didn’t check the news, listen to the radio, or follow any political race. There is so much negativity in the world around us…just reading the newspaper can induce stress! For just 48 hours we chose to disconnect, to unplug, and focus on just us.
Tomorrow is Monday morning. I am going to head back into the office and there will be plenty of paperwork, more deadlines, additional to-dos, and phone calls to make. However, after this little 48-hour rejuvenation I am feeling rested, refreshed and revived! During this time of rejuvenation I had some tremendous times of brainstorming where ideas would transpire and solutions to problems seemed to come out of nowhere. This brief 48-hour rejuvenation will have a significant impact on my future, the future of my family, and the future of the patients I serve because of some of the vision and direction we received during this time of relaxation.
So how about it? Do you think you could intentionally schedule a “rejuvenate for 48” into your calendar once a month during these next few months of summer? It will have a positive improvement on:
- your mental health with clearer thinking and new ideas
- your physical health with less stress and all of its negative consequences
- your family health with drawing closer to those that matter most in your life
- your financial health because, hey, you save a ton of money by staying home!
