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October 21, 2024 5 mins

Since it's impossible to do nothing, figure out what you'd find relaxing and enjoyable

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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is that something might be more relaxing than nothing.
When people are feeling tired and stressed, aiming to do

(00:25):
something specific and enjoyable might improve matters more than lying
on the couch. So we have all been there. You
are exhausted after a long week, You get to the
weekend and you want to do nothing. But what exactly

(00:46):
does nothing mean. It is impossible to literally do nothing
in the sense that you need to eat and sleep
at least. So what people mean when they say they
want to do nothing is that they don't have a
lot of energy and they don't want to do things
that they don't want to do. They want to fill

(01:08):
their hours with things they find relaxing and enjoyable, and
that is great. But if you ask people what they
find relaxing and enjoyable, they rarely say trying to fast
forward through a ton of political commercials or looking at
pictures of influencers on Instagram who are dressing their children

(01:30):
and matching outfits. People mention curling up with a good
book or baking or gardening or doing other hobbies like puzzles.
Even screen desires tend to be intentional things like watching
a movie, playing a particular video game with friends, watching

(01:51):
a favorite team play, or something like that. In other words,
what is relaxing and enjoyable is something specific rather than nothing,
which is impossible in any case. So if you are
feeling overwhelmed and tired, why not choose something specific that

(02:11):
you would like to do to recharge yourself. If you
have been staring at spreadsheets all week, baking an apple
pie might get your mind off of it, or going
for a long walk with your dog to see the
fall leaves. Decide that you are going to make a
Saturday night date with your favorite home renovation show and

(02:32):
watch a medley of episodes rather than just seeing what
is on. There are a few reasons to do this.
First chosen fun is almost universally going to be more
enjoyable than whatever just shows up in front of you.
We all like some things better than others. Consciously filling

(02:56):
our downtime with things we actually like might seem like
a no brainer, and yet when people get exhausted, they
don't do it. So it might be helpful to make
a list of what you truly enjoy sometime when you've
got a bit more energy. That way, you can pull
from the list during low energy times. But more importantly,

(03:19):
when you do something specific, it stands out in the
mind as you are doing it, and as you are
looking back over your downtime, you remember what happened. You
don't discount this time as smaller than it was or nonexistent.
When we are busy and tired, we can sometimes tell

(03:40):
ourselves a story that we just don't have any time.
You can spend three hours lying on the couch and
still tell yourself that you didn't do anything since it
was forgettable time. But if you buy fresh apples from
a farmer's market and then go bake a pie, it

(04:01):
is pretty hard to tell yourself the story that this
time didn't exist. I mean, the pie is sitting right
there at least until you eat it. Ultimately, having some
sense of autonomy is just a better story. I am busy,
but I do have some time for myself. That's a

(04:23):
more useful story than no time, because if you can
find sometime, maybe you can find a little bit more. So,
rather than thinking you will do nothing, think about what
something would be relaxing and enjoyable and figure out how
you might do that. You will feel a lot more

(04:46):
charged than if you just let your downtime happen. In
the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening

(05:08):
to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

(05:31):
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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Laura Vanderkam

Laura Vanderkam

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