“Give Me a Break!”

To Enhance Creativity – Don’t Push - Take a Mental Health Break…

For Epoxy Resin Crafters and Artisans, and others who require creative inspiration for their expressions, taking a break to clear their heads is beneficial to the creative process. This also applies to other areas that may produce stress such as careers, colleagues, bosses, family pressures and more. Taking regular time away from every day obligatory activities helps us recharge our energy, strengthen our focus and boost our productivity.

A recent article in The Saturday Evening Post, ‘Give It a Rest!’ by Alex Soojung-kim Pang explains, “A 2015 survey found that 71 percent of workers who take regular vacations reported being satisfied with their work, versus 17 percent of workers who don’t.” Further, Mr. Soojung-kim Pang states that for creative types, passing up on, or delaying, time off can be detrimental to creativity;

“For writers, scientists, and entrepreneurs, delaying vacations can also mean passing up opportunities for creative breakthroughs. Lin-Manuel Miranda had the idea for Hamilton when he read Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton during a vacation to Mexico. He had been working for seven years on his play In the Heights, and as he later put it, “the moment my brain got a moment’s rest, Hamilton walked into it.” Software developers have epiphanies on vacation, too: Kevin Systrom came up with the idea for Instagram while on a vacation in Mexico in 2010, while Rafa Soto dreamed up OmmWriter, a minimalist word processor, on a beach in Brazil. In fact, according to a 2014 survey, one in five start-up founders got the idea for their company during vacations.”

Breaks are Beneficial...

And while people are tending to take fewer and shorter vacations overall today, even a quick break during the day – away from a screen for instance if you work on a computer – helps concentration and energy levels throughout the day. According to Kimberly Elsbach, a management professor at the University of California at Davis, “Never taking a break from very careful thought work actually reduces your ability to be creative.” Studying the psychology of the workplace, Elsbach says forgoing a break “. . . sort of exhausts your cognitive capacity and you’re not able to make the creative connections you can if your brain is more rested.

So, unplug from your routine and take a break. Even a few 20-minute daily breaks of mind-clearing relaxation have great positivity for your mind, body and soul with long-term benefits such as lower blood pressure, improved concentration and productivity and creativity boosts!