Last week, I felt myself get shaky.  Shaky in an emotional way, where overwhelm hits you and you get all adrenal-y.  Does that ever happen to you?

I was launching my new website, homeschooling my three kids, getting the garden ready, coaching my clients, and trying to crank out some reasonably healthy meals in the meantime.  I mean, how often can you serve Mac and Cheese for dinner?

The stuff I was doing is all stuff I love doing, but I realized I had pushed myself too hard getting this website done.  I’m a nature girl, and sitting in front of the computer in all my spare time wasn’t doing much for my sanity.

Fortunately, my friend sent me an email with the perfect reminder, and I want to pass it on to you.

How about this idea: Take pleasure breaks every hour.

Now if that sounds like too much effort, too much luxury, too much work even, hang in there with me for a second.

I’m not talking about taking a long bath, or getting a massage, or going on a coffee date with a girlfriend. Although this would be nice, I’m talking about something much, much simpler, and much quicker.

Here’s the deal: Every hour, take one minute (or more!) to do something that brings you pleasure.

So of course now you need to figure out what brings you pleasure, which might not be too hard to figure out.

What makes you smile?

What feels good to you?

What raises your vibration?

For me, it might be getting up from the computer to take a nice, deep breath and stretch, yawning loudly, wiggling my bootie, possibly belching out the tune to “Sound of Music”. Yes, it results in strange looks from my family members and dogs, but who cares?

It might mean stepping outside, taking a nice gulp of air and looking at the mountains.

Maybe it’s recalling a fun memory and basking in it for a minute.

How about giving gratitude? That’s a big one for me. When I feel particularly whiny about having to do laundry (which I hate, hate, hate to do), it helps to acknowledge the sucky feeling that comes up when I have to do yet another load of &%#@ laundry, and then give gratitude for having a washer and dryer, and indeed, for having a roof over my head to house the washer and dryer in.  And running hot water is nice.

Another sure pleasure-inducer is petting my little woofy dog and kissing him up. He likes it, too, so that’s a plus. Mama wins, pooch wins.

There are lots of scientifically validated studies out there to prove the effectiveness of this (not just about petting dogs, but the whole pleasure break thing).

Taking pleasure breaks boosts your seratonin and dopamine levels, decreases stress, enhances your brain and increases productivity and happiness.

Damn! Right? So if you have to set your timer to go off every hour, go for it. For the technologically more inclined, you will even find an app for it.

So can we all try to do this, maybe just for one day? See what happens.

Also, if you want to go really pro on this, make a collage or vision board of what brings you pleasure. Cut out stuff from all the magazines you don’t have time to read, draw something, write stuff down.

And for an extra bonus, leave a comment here to tell us what kinds of things you are going to do for your pleasure breaks. It will be fun getting ideas from you!

Have a great week!

Onward, with pleasure!

PS: And as always, if you would like to schedule a free coaching session with me, ➡️CLICK HERE ♥︎