There Is Nothing Wrong With Rest
Rest Is Essential
At times when I was severely depressed, all I would do is lay in bed all day, constantly scrolling through social media to distract myself from reality.
I would stay in bed for hours, only to get up at midnight to make something quick for me to eat, as I couldn’t ignore the growls of my stomach begging for food.
Those times are long gone now. Or rather, they’re at bay. I’m happier and healthier. Therefore, I want to do as much as possible. Last weekend, I did a 10-minute workout, cleaned my bathroom and bedroom, bought groceries and cooked a good meal. For the next two days, I decided to continue my path of productivity by doing a 40-minute workout in the morning and pole dancing in the evenings. By Wednesday, my body was aching, I was tired and couldn’t concentrate. I burnt myself out.
For the first time in my life, I’m having to focus on drawing boundaries with myself, and on how much I can do.
It has been hard because so far, I’ve seen doing nothing as a bad thing. For a while, being unproductive meant mental illness; it meant failure. But now, I’ve realised that doing too much makes me exhausted. I need to rest. To recuperate. To recharge.
And if my rest looks like me staying in bed and going through my phone, then so be it.
When we have to juggle work, family, friends, and romantic relationships and find time for ourselves, it’s no surprise that people become burnt out. It’s so easy to lose ourselves in the thick of it all.
But if we take our time to rest, our physical and mental health is better for it.
