332. Take a Break

No matter what’s going on in your life, you deserve a break. Even if it’s a few minutes, take some time for yourself today.

Transcripts may not appear in their final version and are subject to change.

Nora McInerny:  Right now, everything’s a lot. Everything’s a lot. I don’t know many people who would categorize themselves in the thriving category. I know a lot of people who feel like they are and have been  at the end of a very rapidly fraying rope. I know a lot of people who feel like their plates are too full and yet some lunch lady is just heaping on another scoop of something of stress or disaster or responsibility or did I already say stress?

The cup is already full and yet  someone’s still pouring  and not in a good way. It’s not like something that you wanted them to pour in the cup. They’re like, Oh, you’re lactose intolerant. Well guess what? The milk fountain is on and you are going to, it’s, it’s whole milk. Okay, and you’re going to take this lactose and you’re going to keep chugging it.

Everything is a lot. People are overloaded, overworked, underpaid, just on the edge, on the edge in so many ways.

And I want to  encourage you,  if possible,  and I know it’s not always possible,  to take a break,  to give yourself a break. That doesn’t mean necessarily that you have to jet off somewhere. I actually think travel’s extremely stressful and that is my hot take of the day. I don’t know that that vacations are really all that, that relaxing.

 We’re flying in like smaller seats and planes that are falling apart. I’m sorry, this show is called It’s Going To Be Okay, and so far I’ve just told you all of the many ways that things are not okay. It is okay for you to take a break. It is okay for you to need a minute, five minutes, a day. It is okay for you to say, it’s actually a little bit too much right now.

It is okay for you to  It is okay for you to take that break, however it is available to you. And maybe that just means the next time you’re in your car, you spend an extra 10 minutes scrolling your phone, I don’t know, doing some soothing game that lets you kind of just escape and turn your brain off. 

That you sit alone in your bathroom with the door locked so that the people who rely on you and need you and need things from you constantly at least can’t get to you physically. Because there’s a door between you  and that door has a lock.  

You are just a person. You are not a machine. You are not a robot. You are a person. and it is normal for people to get tired. It is normal for people to have limits. It is okay for you to have limits and it is okay for you  to take a break before you have crossed those limits.  

Every time I say this into a microphone, I think you can tell I am saying it to myself  and hoping that the words fall on a person  who also needs this message as much as I do.  Who needs to be reminded that it’s not all in their head. Who needs to be reminded that  rest is restorative, it is necessary.  Nothing grows forever, nothing goes forever.

You were not born  to arrive on this earth. This miracle of a planet as a miracle of a person.  to simply toil and toil and struggle and suffer. You were born,  honestly, to dilly dally, to dawdle, to laze about,  to relax, to snooze, to watch bad reality TV if you want, or to read deep meaningful books if you want.

It is okay to need a break.  It’s okay to take a break.  You’re not lazy.  You’re not a loser. You just need a minute. Maybe 10 minutes. Maybe six to eight weeks paid vacation  in a sensory deprivation chamber, which is personally what I would like,  but we can’t all get what we want.  

Today, I’m asking you, begging you, take a break. I don’t care what it is, I don’t care how long it is, but get away, step away, say no to something, send a call to voicemail, decline a meeting, take a break.