There's a lot of negative news every day. Even locally, the latest bad stories are a missing 13 year old girl and a 2 year old drowned by her own aunt in a bathtub. Sometimes, the news comes at your hard and fast, and it's hard to keep your emotions in check because it just never seems to stop.

The regular workday is pretty much the same. In some ways, it seems like the very same thing every single moment of every single day. In other ways, though, it seems as though things are coming at you faster than a speeding bullet, either in amount or critical need or changing landscape.

One thing very few of us do is take a moment here and there just to relax for a few minutes. When I was a director, I never took a break, even though, per the guidelines, I was entitled to two 15 minute breaks a day, even as a director. Many times I didn't even take lunch, or when I did, it was just to drive someplace to pick something up, then I'd bring it back to my office and eat while I continued to work.

I loved my job, so I figured I was giving my all and still having fun, but the reality is that I never rested my mind at any point during the workday. Human beings aren't really meant to keep their minds so engaged for such a long period of time without a break. Ancient man slept a lot of the time, conserving energy for those times when it was most needed. When one looks at history, with all the crusades and empires and such, we realize that as hard as these cultures fought, they played and rested just as vigorously.

Each of us has to find that moment in the day where we can rest our minds for at least five or ten minutes, possibly a couple of times. During this time, try not to think about the work that has to be done, which I'll acknowledge is difficult to do. But give it your best shot. Get away from the office; take a book or newspaper with you, or put on some walking shoes and walk around outside, just looking at things and taking in the fresh air. You might have to check that one with your company to verify that their compensation program allows you to do it.

A rested mind is a more creative mind, and a rested person is a happier person. It's a lesson I wish I'd learned much earlier, and still have to remind myself of from time to time.