Work / Life Balance: Take a daily "vacation"

Have you ever gotten to the point when your body decides to go on a mini vacation so it can heal? I am of course talking about being ill - or sick. You promise yourself that you will take a couple of days off after you've completed a project or some long-standing task, you run yourself ragged for days/weeks/months on end until your body says "ENOUGH" and you end up in bed for a week recovering. And it's usually because we have not managed to balance our working and "life" (Work / Life Balance)
 
The problem with running yourself into the ground is that you don't get the benefit from having time off. Whilst your body is recovering (which is a good thing) you are too sick to enjoy the experience of not being in work, or working.
 
When was the last time you actually had a day off? Now I don't mean the two days we call a week - end, because those are the days we usually spend running around doing the shopping, washing and cleaning. I mean a real, honest to goodness day off? No phones, no computer, no striving at all.

Can you remember what it felt like to get up an hour or so later than normal, fetching a cup of tea and going back to bed with your book, or going for a walk along the beach, or in the fields and woods by your house. Those kinds of days in our ever increasing fast paced lives are rare - unless you are very lucky of course. 

Unless you stop long enough to know where you are supposed to be heading, how on earth do you know if you are still on the right track?
 
I know that you may feel like you are unable to take an entire day off, or an afternoon - but a good example of down time is your lunch break. Take your sandwich to the park and sit outside and breath in something other than artificial air. See some real sunlight and not the false lighting that has changed our bodies natural rhythms and cycles.
 
Our bodies are the most amazing pieces of "machinery" we will ever own, yet we feed it inferior fuel and expect it to run 24/7 without a rest. Creating work / life balance is essential. So take a mini-vacation before your machine "breaks down" - you will thank yourself for it.