After wrestling with classes, homework, jobs and extracurricular activities all week, it is important for college students to take a day to rest. Without a day to clear your mind, it is much harder to focus for the rest of the week because at some point, the constant workload burns you out.
Emily Thomsen of sabbathtruth.com urges everyone to take the opportunity to rest. She says, “God knew that in our human tendency to further our own interests, we would need opportunities for spiritual growth, to refocus on things of eternal importance. The Sabbath is an opportunity to break away from the pressures of everyday living.”
The Hebrew word Sabbath means “to cease,” and symbolizes the day that God rested after creating the world, according to the book of Genesis. It’s also the day that Jews are supposed to rest from work and focus on what is really important in life – relationships, friends, family and even yourself – and give thanks.
Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, taking a day off for rest and reflection is a practice many people can relate to. Whether you take Saturdays off for Shabbat, use Sundays for Christian religious observance or even spend a weekday that you don’t have class to simply hang out, it’s important to catch up with friends or do anything non-work related that you find relaxing. You will feel rejuvenated and uplifted for the rest of the week until you have the chance to experience the relaxation again.
Schoolwork, email and even social media consume my life and I never have the ability to get away from it because everything is online. And if everything is online, I can access it from my phone, which is always with me. This means that I can never get away. When I feel or hear my phone vibrate, I instinctually attend to whatever notification it sent me.
During the week, these might be important messages from a professor or friend about plans for that day. But on Saturdays, I realize that I can take a break from thinking about things that I can deal with the next day. I have friends who follow this routine religiously (no pun intended). They admit that they are much happier when they know they have one carefree day in which they have nothing to worry about besides spending time with friends.
The weekly day off keeps you going. Fox News found that in one survey, 82 percent of employees have taken mental health days just to relax. As author Laurie Tarkan writes, “It may seem counterproductive to play hooky when you have more work than you can handle, but when you’re feeling super stressed, your work and creativity are likely suffering. Taking a day off can rejuvenate you so you come back as a more effective employee.”
Why make yourself unhappy when you can take one day a week (that’s four days a month!) to yourself to rejuvenate instead? It can be done. It is important not to overwork yourself or else you might feel buried. You might even find that you don’t have as much work to do as you first thought. No one should get to the point where they are so overwhelmed that they need to take a “mental health day,” since relaxation should be built into your week and lifestyle.
Cutting stressful aspects out of your life for a day isn’t an all or nothing deal. Some people are strict about completely removing themselves from work, but others just cut out one thing like their phone, Facebook or even homework. It doesn’t have to be for a full day, either – just enough time for you to enjoy yourself. My habits are inconsistent, but I want to make new goals for myself in order to have a happier Saturday result in a happier, more productive week. No matter how far you are along in your college path, it’s never too late to start. You’ll begin a consistent habit that will last you many more years.
Karen Podorefsky is a Collegian columnist and can be reached at [email protected].
