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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of IHeart Radio.

Good morning. This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's tip is to take a mental health morning. We can all feel overwhelmed

with our responsibilities from time to time. And while taking a vacation is great, that can involve a lot of

time and effort and expense. Plus, if you have small children, a vacation probably won't involve a break

from those responsibilities. It can be fun in lots of other ways a vacation probably won't involve a break from those responsibilities.

It can be fun in lots of other ways, but it won't exactly be a break. So what can you do?

I like this suggestion from before breakfast listener Melinda, who wrote in about what's been

working for her. She calls her solution a mental health morning. About once per month,

I take two hours of paid time off in the morning to go to the gym, she says. After working out,

I take a long shower. I have a toddler and an infant, so this is especially luxurious.

And then I go to my favorite coffee shop and read for 30 minutes.

Then I go to work. She says that this two hours of playing hooky from life works better for me than

taking a mental health day, because I find when I take the whole day off, I fill it with

cleaning or running errands or doing whatever I would have found other time to do anyway because it had to be done.

The other perk, she says, is that by only using two hours per month, I only end up using three days of vacation per year.

And that leaves enough PTO to take real vacations, too.

She says that I find my productivity and creativity always shoot up on the week I do this.

A big bonus is no mom guilt because I'm using time I would have been at work anyway. I think this idea

of a mental health morning is great for people with full lives. Sometimes taking a small break can have a big

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