Work Boundaries: The Value of Taking Breaks

You may have caught yourself doing it. You’re at a party or a gathering related to your kids like a sports event. You strike up a conversation with another person, and before you know it, you ask them what they do for a living, or they ask you about yourself and you start talking about your work. Sometimes it seems as though we can never get away from our work because we have no work boundaries.

For many of us, our lives are defined by our work. Most of our waking hours are tied closely with work, whether that’s our morning commute to work, thinking about deadlines and meetings, gaining skills to make us better at our job, resolving a thorny interpersonal issue that’s arisen there, or thinking about getting a different job than the one we have.

The Place of Work in Our Lives

The work that we do provides us with many things. We can derive our sense of purpose, resources to support our family and pursue other passions, and a means of serving our community through our work. The work that takes up your day might not be remunerated with a salary, but that doesn’t diminish its significance or impact. Work can be deeply fulfilling even when it isn’t a career.

Work has existed since the beginning of creation, and despite what the Monday blues tell you, work is fundamentally good. It existed in the garden before people rebelled against God and our work became a burdensome toil (Genesis 2:15; Genesis 3:17-19). Work still provides us with pleasure, especially if it is good work that’s done well, but it’s also true that most of us have a love-hate relationship with our work.

One of the other things that’s happened with us and our work is that we too often define ourselves by it. Indeed, for some of us, work becomes a refuge and a place where our lives make sense.

It’s not uncommon for a person to plunge into work because it gives them satisfaction in a way their interpersonal relationships don’t seem to, or to avoid dealing with personal problems. Working too much can sometimes be a symptom of depression in men, for instance.

Work is a good thing, but like all good things, it can become an unhealthy thing if we aren’t careful. We can try to find identity in our work in unsustainable ways. After all, what happens to your identity if you lose your job, or when your job doesn’t bring you the satisfaction you wanted?

Work Boundaries: Taking Breaks for Well-being

One of the ways for us to keep work in its proper place is to create boundaries for our work. A boundary is a demarcation that creates a distinction between one thing and another. Work boundaries can take many forms, but one healthy boundary you can create is to take breaks from it, daily, weekly, and yearly.

When God rescued the ancient Israelites from slavery in Egypt, one of the ways they would mark their new identity as His freed people with a mission in the world was to take a day off for rest and worship.

This was called the Sabbath, and it was a way of honoring God and remembering that whatever fruitfulness they produced didn’t come from their own efforts. Sabbath was a way of resisting the relentless push and pull of work and declaring dependence on the Lord.

In our lives, taking breaks from work is a good boundary. We are endlessly contactable because we have phones and email which can find us at the dinner table, on vacation, or at a child’s dance recital. Consciously unplugging from work helps to preserve a healthy relationship with your work. Additionally, respecting your body and mind’s natural cycles by resting helps you to be more productive and efficient.

Setting boundaries and taking breaks during your day, your week, and the year is good for your well-being. It helps you take time to invest in other relationships, as well as in allowing your body to recuperate. It is also a good reminder that you matter and aren’t defined by the work you do.

In Australia, the right to disconnect is a new development that gives workers the legal right to not respond to work messages after hours. Such developments may take a while to reach us in the US, but you can, in small ways, reclaim your boundaries so that your work doesn’t become your life.

If you want to cultivate a healthy work-life balance and find ways to create and communicate your boundaries, you can reach out today and talk to a life coach or a counselor. They can help you understand your priorities better and organize your life accordingly.

Your Christian counselor in Carrollton, Texas can help you in implementing a plan to make healthy choices and arrange your life in a way that promotes your flourishing. To meet with one of the coaches or counselors at Texas Christian Counselingm Carrollton, give us a call today.