20. Break Time

20. Break Time
How did you used to spend break time at school?

I used to enjoy mooching around the school field; booking out a practice room and playing piano; spending time with friends. Sometimes I would go into the art room and paint or draw.

Getting up and going outside, playing a bit of music, doing a bit of doodling, spending time with friends are all some of the wonderful things we can do when we are taking a break from studying – or from screens. Talking about her hiatus from making records, one of my all time favourite artists – Missy Elliott – once said in an interview “your brain needs time to refresh!” I think that’s a great way to put it and frankly, if Missy Elliott has advice on how to be creative, I’LL TAKE IT!

There’s a superb podcast about attention and the importance of breaks that you can find on your preferred podcast platform by searching for “Tired? Distracted? Burned-Out?–The Ezra Klein Show” in which he and his guest for that show – Gloria Mark, a professor at the University of California, Irvine and author of the book “Attention Span,” – discuss the vital role that taking breaks plays in our learning, and our ability to pay attention.

I’m also thinking about the lovely quote from the Winnie the Pooh books by A.A. Milne that Patricia shared for the quotes prompt, from a conversation between Pooh and Christopher Robin:

“Don’t underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.”

– A.A. Milne

It’s been a busy month so far of studying, learning, sharing ideas via the #KNITSONIKbacktoschool prompts but I’m going to take a little break as we’re on holiday for a few days. Feel free to join me in taking a break too, if you need one! When I return, let’s talk about the joy of what happens when we give our minds “time to refresh” x

SEE YOU SOON X