How to recharge your inner battery

[tweetmeme source=”living_minimal” only_single=false]Anyone remember that scene in the Matrix where Morpheus shows Neo a battery as an explanation to what humans truly are to the robots? This week I was that battery. Only the culprit that was stealing my energy wasn’t any robot, it was myself. During the finishing touches on my final thesis I was proud, energized and on the top of the world. One hour later I was completely drained.
Looking back I saw two or three weeks in which I felt supercharged. I even wrote about it in my previous post. (Sorry for the hiatus of between the posts!) I was riding this huge wave of creativity and I loved it. With handing in my final thesis that wave came to a screeching halt and I came tumbling down. I realize that after 5 months of research and these three uberweeks this was inevitable. Why?

You need to take a break after finishing a big project.

Especially the ones that you are emotionally involved in, have scary deadlines and need your total focus. Allowing yourself a break relieves the stress exerted on your body and mind while being on the project. You can compare it with physical exercise. If you train something too long and too hard it starts to get cramped. You can do two thing at this moment: take a rest or continue in the hope that the cramp disappears. You guess which option has the highest chance of injury.

So what am I doing during this recharge period? I sleep more, I spend extra time with my girlfriend, do extra yoga and read a lot. What do you do while recharging your battery?

Photo taken by Scalespeeder (flickr)