During Lent, many of us opt to fly back to our hometowns and attend church services. For some, Holy Week is an opportunity to spend quality time with family and friends. However you choose to spend the remaining days of March, be sure to make the most out of it. Relax in your room, go on a mini vacation, or have a retreat. Lent is the perfect opportunity to have some quiet personal time and do the following:
Since Maundy Thursday is a regular holiday, try finishing all your pending tasks before then. By tying all the loose ends, you’ll be able to give yourself a holiday free from work emails. Although distancing yourself from work during Lent might be difficult, especially for those with busy schedules, doing it will do you good. After all, dropping your to-do list for several days isn’t a sign of laziness. It’s a way for you to re-examine yourself, gather your thoughts, and do better once the holidays are over.
While it seems impossible to completely give up social media during this break, there’s some merit to limiting your use to the essentials. Check traffic updates on Twitter, fix your schedule through Facebook Messenger, but leave the BuzzFeed Tasty food video for now. Use this time to sift through the ideas and issues you’ve encountered on your feed in the past. Weed out the bad from the good information you see on your newsfeed, so you can identify issues that really matter to you.
Another activity you can do during your time alone is to cross out books on your reading list – and we don’t just mean self-help books – read whatever catches your interest. Reading allows you to escape, and forces you to concentrate and eliminate potential stressors. One study even showed that reading almost instantly helps a person to relax. It also revealed that it only takes six minutes of reading to ease tension in the muscles, and slow the heart rate down.
You know your grade school teacher was on to something when she required you to keep a diary. For grown-ups like you, journaling will help you gather your thoughts and make sense of your fast-paced life. So during your time alone, try expression writing: jot down bad and good memories, scribble your thoughts, and write as if you’re just telling stories to your friends. Doing this allows you to know yourself better, while keeping the stress away.
What can’t you live without? This is one of the important questions to ask yourself during this period of reflection. If you’re currently in a toxic relationship, or a job you don’t like that much, use this period to weigh your options and decide if you should just let go or hold on. Zero in on your priorities. Family? Faith? Career? Think about these things, then list them down. Once you’re done, identify the parts of your life that contribute to the development of these priorities. Focus on these parts and let go of the ones that doesn’t make the cut.
For one week each year, you get a chance to pause everything. To stop whatever it is you’re busy with. To take some time off, and get away from all of it. So ensure that you make the most out of the coming lent season by engaging in any of the aforementioned activities.
