Fix yourself a break!

Hello High Heelers

It’s that time of the year when everything starts winding down a little. The roads are quite a lot quieter, the shopping malls are buzzing with shining happy people and the most hard-faced bosses are smiling (and even humming a little). My boss, Natalie Maroun, however, is not humming. Nope. This is because she is away on her annual break and will only be back in January. I know – it’s hard to believe that my Prada-wearing, late-night-working, hectically-driven boss takes a break longer than five minutes, but she does!

Normally when someone says ‘break’ in my world it means something is no longer intact. For instance – I managed to break my computer last week, as well as my credit card and most of my nails (with some help from my teeth). To be honest, I’m not sure why when you leave work and take a little time off it’s called ‘a break’. The only thing broken at the point is possibly you. In my humble opinion this should never be referred to as a break. If anything, it is a ‘fix’ (and not in the drug/alcohol sense either!)

So Natalie is off getting fixed for the next few weeks. Not that she was ever broken. But everyone and everything needs a little fixing from time to time. That’s why we take our cars in for a service every year (before they break down – hopefully). I have a knack for not fixing things before they break – which could account for why I’m feeling a little broken at the moment. In fact, I feel as though if I tripped and fell over my heels in the parking lot today, that I’d be permanently attached to the tar. Not a very elegant picture. And then a truck would probably drive over me. I imagine it would hurt. A lot.

In this world of fast pace, constant upgrades and technology, we spend so much time recharging our computers, our cameras and our cellphones, but we don’t spend very much time recharging ourselves. This is a little silly if you think about it… what happens if you don’t recharge your laptop? Yep, it crashes and takes with it all unsaved work that you were busy with. When you turn it on again it very smugly tells you that you’ve lost some valuable stuff, that you’re an idiot and that you need to start all over again. And computers allegedly don’t have personalities – yeah, right!

So what makes us mortals think that we can keep going without filling our batteries with refreshed power, from time to time? I guess we think we’re immortal since we have energy pills, vitamin injections and caffeine drinks on hand to give us a boost when we need it. If our stress levels get too intense we can always stock up on mild tranquilisers and anti-depressants. I’m not suggesting that these medications don’t significantly assist those who need them to live healthier lives. I’m rather alluding to the possibility that many of us wouldn’t be dependant on them if we recharged and looked after ourselves a little better.

As we hit the ‘quieter time’ in the Western calendar, may I be so bold as to encourage you to actually take some time off and relax? I even recommend pulling off your heels, standing firmly on the ground and allowing nature to do its regenerative magic. Have a wonderful, restful week High Heelers.

Cheers,

Jo