Downtime

The pressure is on.

Both adults and children face full-packed schedules every day. Even Shabbos is highly structured and typically offers true respite only in the form of a brief nap. When one is awake one is davening learning entertaining looking after children serving cleaning up — some people actually find Shabbos one of the busiest days of all.

Different Ways of Being

Some people (children teens and adults) thrive with tight schedules. Their motors run from dawn ’till midnight on full blast. They love the constant stimulation and are nourished by it. Every moment is productively occupied with mitzvos and a variety of important activities; they are always on-task. They are of course in the minority.

Most people push themselves hard — they try to do what they’re supposed to do as much as possible. However they feel the strain. They experience physical mental and/or emotional fatigue on and off throughout the day. Some of these children and adults will get minor illnesses that force them to rest; some will carry on indefinitely but with irritability anxiety or low mood.

Then there are the people who feel truly squeezed. The demanding sometimes relentless schedule of the frum lifestyle is hard on them. Children with school days that never end adults with financial burdens that boggle the mind parents with children peeping out of every crack and crevice — many people find it hard to manage not so much because of personal weakness as the simple fact that it is hard to manage!