Take a break

BY SAMUEL EKEKERE

There’s this attribute I noticed amongst my students as a teacher  in a secondary school some years back. I remember also having this attribute as a student. The students often anticipated break time. If I dared stole into the break time, my students would scream and move for an adjournment of the class. They valued break time as it allowed them time away from serious work to relax, refresh, and have fun with their friends. For the more serious ones, it was time to find solace in the library or challenge other gifted talented friends to academic duels. The beauty of the break time was that the students solely managed it.

We can’t continue hour-in hour-out without taking time to relax our minds over the task that we are handling. One may consider himself superman, but even superman often found time to rest. The value of rest cannot be overemphasized. Our body needs enough rest to make us stronger and healthier.

Like our local adage that says, “body no be firewood”, our body isn’t firewood. Firewood can burn off and be useless afterwards but our bodies do not deserve such treatment. The prevailing tendency in us is to stay alive and afloat.

Companies value the welfare of their workers. People managers understand that if they want to keep workers working for longer years, they have to manage the time of work and allow for short breaks at intervals. These companies provide leave periods in which their staff do not work yet are paid full wages and special allowances. They believe that their workers deserve this break times to enable them regain strength, build on their incompetence, and come back stronger. No company would want to lose her best staffs.

The love of money is one lure whose effect could be evasive. I once found myself in a situation. I wanted money really much and I had the opportunity from the home lessons I organized. I was being paid my allowance from my school and made extra lucre from the lessons. It happened that Ihad many home students and taught from house to house often returning home by 9pm having left before 7am every workday. My weekends were clogged with lessons and on Sundays, I had to be in church. At the start, I enjoyed the home classes and the money that came through them but as they increased taking more of my time, the joy travelled and I increasingly became prone to headaches, fever, and other stress related illnesses. i grew thinner and looked pale that finally I decided to quit them, and soon I regained myself.

I’ve learnt over time the value of having breaks in between work. Now I do ensure that as much as possible I make my work in a more relaxed environment creating a good ratio between work and rest. I’ve learnt that money doesn’t come because one works hard; rather, it comes to those that work smart. I’ve developed a working habit with rest always behind it acknowledging that the essence of my work is to give me a good rest.

Some persons think the title “workaholic” is some great title. While people may hail what you may consider as good work ethics, the same people know that someday you’d break down at the pace you are going. Check the manuals of vehicle engines or generators; you’d observe that there is certain time frame or distance covered that the engine must be rested. It’s not that the engine cannot work beyond that frame. It’s that the engine has a greater chance of breaking down when it works without resting.

Man produces his machineries with rest time for them in mind. If he does this to his creations, he too must recognize himself is a creation of God that deserves rest. Many souls are not dying because they lack money or food. They are dying because they don’t rest. They thus become easy prey to ailments such as high blood pressure, heart attack etc.

Our body has a mechanism that helps check us though, if we over run. That’s often when we get down ill. We get ill because our body needs to regain itself. You feel the pains of the recovery process because you have hurt the body through your troubling its capacity to work.

The body does not deserve all that troubling. Let it work to its capacity and refresh it often with good food and a beautiful environment.
Keep your body, give it some break.