Ham091095VacationDeficitDisorder

Nashville, TN

HAM

Vacation Deficit Disorder
September 10,1995

Greetings. I am HAM and I greet you all with warmth and sincere good feelings. You have now to return to a simpler way of handling life that has become overly complex and hard to understand. When your interests are specialized and your lives seem to be influenced through a number of different sources, then your feeling harried and are stress prone under the weight of too many distractions.

You can influence yourselves in what you allow yourselves to be influenced by. You will all have experience with a negative influence or worry, which causes negativity internally. The way to relieve yourselves under this influence is to ask yourself, could this be God’s will at this time and if it could, then you must allow it and release your worries. You can release your worries and still learn from your experience.

Usually worry is the direct result of taking yourself too seriously or your work too seriously. Remember that life is only experienced, and so, your efforts gain you experience, and it is the experience mat is most important. Your efforts may fail in the beginning and what you learn through this gives you the experience to succeed later.

Don't put too much emphasis on the present. You will learn to balance your viewpoint with one eye on the future, and one on the past, and so, the present is relieved of its tremendous burden. I ask you each to take time and look backwards, realize how far you have come. So then you can set your goals in the future so that the ups and downs of the present time are not so earth shaking. When you are experiencing the pressures of success, likewise should you ask yourself, is this God's will, and if it could be, learn from this. Learn to let the present pressures be lifted by likewise looking to the future and recognizing your smallness in the vastness of the universe. When looking behind you may well take satisfaction from where you have come from.

Life's pressures should periodically be set aside, no matter if the pressures are thought to be negative or positive. Rest is very important. And I say this again for you who have not heeded this advice. You simply must have rest time, m the future, as you plan your time, plan time for rest and take this time even if you don't feel you need it right now. Pressures of living on your world are very great. Your societies are all geared to increase pressure on humans. And all pressure, though necessary perhaps, is detrimental and will exact a toll on humans, both mentally and physically as well. When you realize the necessity of rest there will be increasing balance and stability in the mental life and this will reflect in the physical life.

This is my message this evening and though it is not long, nor is it profound, I repeat this in the hopes that you will take this seriously. Ideally I would have you take off a week every month. However, I know this is impossible and that you seldom receive prolonged periods of rest.
Questions?

Q: I understand the importance of rest and I would be thrilled to get 8 hours of sleep at night. I think a lot of people when they take time off have family obligations. When you take time off, the 'to do list' gets longer. There is so much to do then when you add what you want to do. I just get further and further behind.

HAM: Yes. We see this pattern constantly, that all your days are filled with chores. And I think that you are all trying too hard to achieve something. You need to allow yourselves time when nothing is to be achieved.

Q: People who work in the music business have time since we don't work a 9 to 5 job. When I have time, I find myself worrying about what I have to do and what needs to get done. Do you have any suggestions?

HAM: Yes. You must have days off, even when your work is mental. You all must have time away from work. Schedule this time during your week where you don't take calls, you don't discuss work, and so forth. Have a day off.

Q: I have difficulty distinguishing between taking time off and procrastinating. I generally tend to feel guilty if I don't work and worry if I don't feel guilty.

HAM: Procrastination is a defense mechanism which allows you some time, and yet you worry during that time, so you never achieve relief from the daily pressure. Again you should schedule days off where you don't take calls and so forth. Just a day to do nothing. I think some of you are unsure what this means.

Q: I think for a lot of us it has been a long time since some of us have just taken a whole day off with no goals and nothing to accomplish.

HAM: Yes, you all need time to yourselves or time to spend in companionship without pressure. Surely one day will not decide your entire fate.

Q: As a mother I try to schedule days like that, but it never works that way. You plan stuff and things come up and it becomes stressful. When you plan a day of rest, outside things happen and screw it up to where you wish you were at work.

HAM: Yes, for you who have children, their incessant demands create work constantly and you must schedule a day away from the children as well.

Q: That means adding an extra day since you have to spend a day with them and then you have five working days.

HAM: Yes, the scheduling of modern life is too rigid.

Q: This time management course I took said, if something is a value to you, that you could make time to work on it. I tried this, and since it was a value, I felt less guilty about doing it.

HAM: Yes, exactly. Once you understand the value of rest, then there is no guilt in scheduling this time.

Q: My hobby used to be to read history and I would read biographies. I noticed that all of those men that did great things were workaholics and worked all the time. I was taking time off to read about them and feeling guilty.

HAM: Understanding the life of Jesus sheds much light on the value He placed upon rest. Much of this, of course, has been lost through the centuries, and so men mistakenly place too high a value on work to the exclusion of a balanced life. Had they recognized the value of rest, their effectiveness would have been increased.

Q: What is you opinion of watching television as a way to rest?

HAM: It can be useful and it is so utilized throughout society. However, the attention that it requires is not truly restful.

Q: What types of activities are truly restful in your opinion?

HAM: Quiet contemplation, communing in nature, relaxed conversation.

Q: For those of us who are not musicians by profession, would listening to music or playing music be examples of restful activities?

HAM: Yes, anything where you are not pressured. Think of this as extending the quiet time through an entire day. Just rest and relaxation, no strenuous exercise, nothing which is tiring either physically or mentally or emotionally.

Q: We take 2 or 3 hours in the morning for exercise. Do you think the amount and me way we do it is good? (It's okay as long as you have rest days.)

PERSONAL QUESTIONS OMITTED

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