Take A Break

“Juice…I want juice.” These are words we have become familiar with in our home. Every time he wants to sleep, our two year old son will call for his drinking bottle. Now he randomly asks for some juice during the day with friends. No problem. But when he is about to sleep…?… Its “juice…I want juice.” No matter what time of day it is. There is usually no way around this demand for his sleep-time juice bottle. We have tried replacing the juice with water; it has not worked.

Two weeks ago, my son went to visit his grandparents (he actually demanded for this holiday visit). We keep getting reports of how he shocks everyone with what he says and his intelligence. The biggest shock for me and my wife is the report that he no longer asks for his drinking bottle when going to sleep. We are now looking forward to meeting our son this week when he comes back.

See, there is always some change that happens whenever we take breaks and step away from our usual environment or usual way of thinking. For our son, being away from home helped him to get over his?drinking habit?(hehe).

How do you handle a situation where you are trying to solve a seemingly simple problem but your brain keeps getting stuck somewhere? How about failing to understand a subject you are trying so hard to study? How do you handle that? What about your business or office life? Are you struggling to get back to your winning ways?

Sometimes we get so worked up with life after all our efforts to do well fail. We may even find another thing or habit to hide our struggles. The problem with my son was not the juice in the bottle, but the desire for juice when sleeping. Replacing the juice with water was a useless gimmick that never helped. The schemes we come up with during personal struggles may bring temporal satisfaction but usually lead to nowhere – especially if we put ourselves under so much pressure to impress.

The best act of wisdom is to simply take a break. Take a break from your daily routine. Take a break from your usual circle of friends. Take a break from your daily environment. Just step back a little. Take leave! Do something different. Find a hobby, interact with friends.

Something always happens when you take a break from something. Growth happens. Clarity of purpose and goals happens. Rejuvenation happens. You also attain peace when you take a break. Some habits even die as you adjust your ways of doing things.

Stay alive to your issues and struggles. TAKE A BREAK!

This article first appeared on my blog, the loud introvert