Labor Day Downtime

Labor Day is just a week away, and tradition calls for parades, and arts and crafts, and barbecues! But we’d like to offer you a less-intuitive option for honoring this particular holiday: do nothing.

Established in 1894, Labor Day honors the contributions of American workers and the achievements of labor unions. The parades and celebrations eventually came to include speeches by prominent labor leaders, and over the years different cities developed their own traditions to layer on top of the standard ones.

But at its heart, Labor Day is a pause, a day for workers to take a break and enjoy the lives they’ve worked so hard to build. In that spirit, we encourage you to heed the words of this Labor Day blessing from Charity M. Richey-Bentley: “But most of all, I wish you downtime, relaxation, peace and a calmness in your soul.” Do not make any plans for Labor Day. Do not use the day to do chores, or catch up on your family’s to-do list. Don’t even set your alarm.

This might be one of the more challenging Family Time recommendations we’ve ever made. Many of us run on appointments and obligations, and even on our “days off,” both adults and kids are over-scheduled and over-extended. That’s why we’d like to share some of the scientifically-proven benefits of downtime (which you can read more about in this article from Scientific American): it replenishes our attention and motivation. It encourages creativity and, ironically, productivity. It helps us form stable memories and maintain our sense of self. Finally, and perhaps most impressively, downtime “unsticks us in time so that we can learn from the past and plan for the future.” When we slow down and allow our minds to wander, they actually work better when we need them to focus. Imagine, then, the benefits to our bodies, our emotional health, and, of course, our families when we take a day to pause together.

You might find you’d like to make time for downtime more than once a year! So whether on Labor Day or another day, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram and let us know how doing nothing (every once in a while) is benefiting your family.