In high school we learn a bunch of things we never use in real life. Math equations, chemistry formulas, history specific dates... That doesn’t mean those things are useless. We learn them so that we can find out what do we want to do after we graduate. School teaches us how to think for ourselves, how to research, learn, and have a general opinion on life.
I was lucky to go to a wonderful school in Brazil with amazing teachers and a great curriculum.
One of the faculty members, my Sociology teacher, was a funny man (still is, actually) with a talent for capturing students’ attention and explaining society’s nature in an easy way to understand. Although his classes were great, the ones I remember the most were the ones where he wasn’t “teaching”. Sometimes he would stop a lecture to make us sing in French. Other times, he would make us push the desks aside and lay on the floor for a meditation session.
And that was his greatest lesson. Not the singing in French, though now I actually need to speak the language. I’m taking about the meditation one.
In our teenage years, we didn’t really have any needs for meditation. Life was just beginning and it was simple for most of us. Of course, we all had our share of teenage drama, most of which was cooked by our own hands. So meditating and relaxing wasn’t so important as it is now in adulthood.
Still, there was my Sociology teacher making us stop and take a break from studying in order to learn how to relax each part of our body, especially our minds.
That is something I deeply struggle with.
Nowadays, there is this awful pressure from society for us to be doing something productive even during leisure. Because time is money, there is no time not to profit. If we don’t relax during the gap in our schedule programmed for winding down, then we’re not making good use of that time. Hence, we’re not being productive.
And that is so messed up!
Taking some real time to take care of ourselves is of the most importance. And that is what my sociology teacher was trying to teach us: even if we’re in the middle of a project or task, sometimes it is best to take a break and do something for ourselves. That project will still be there after that.
If you’re still trying to be productive, know that taking a break helps with that too. But the silver lining here is that feeling good about yourself is not bad, on the contrary.
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