Duvet day
Have you ever experienced a need for a complete stop?
Sometimes we just need a duvet day to listen to our bodies and rest. I reached a point last week when I pushed myself to my limit. As much as I feel I am in tune with my body and its rhythms, I am guilty at times of keeping going even when I really shouldn’t. Hence, why this piece is coming to you a day later than normal.
I had hit ‘peak meerkat.’ This is the name I call the state when I am run down but on high alert, in a heightened state of mind that rules over everything. Sometimes taking time and allowing myself to take the time comes easy, but in this instance, it seemed to take someone else to make me realise this was where I was. I hadn’t reached peak meerkat for a long time, but a series of factors and being sick brought it back.
The first thing I noticed when I said it out loud was that it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. The overthinking seemed to slowly dissipate, and I concentrated on feeling physically better.
It made me realise that as I’ve been searching and working on my new path, I never actually took a day to rest. I haven’t kept my self to a strict regime, but I tried to keep some sort of routine to each day.
It was listening to a talk and also realising as much as I knew it was a process and that it was a rollercoaster, taking a day of complete rest to actually deal with this whole thing hadn’t happened. Yes, I had taken myself out of a situation that was draining me and I had then started a journey of healing, but just stopping for a moment to recalibrate never actually happened. This seemed like an odd concept as I was effectively going about my day how I wanted, but getting ill made me do a complete and full stop.
I found, as I stopped and began to rest, clarity began to come flooding back. Things that I perceived as being negative weren’t as bad as I thought, and my logical brain started firing up again. Just taking a couple of days of watching movies, eating what I fancied, reading and looking after myself really made a huge difference.
I like to think I looked like Meg Ryan in You’ve Got Mail on her sick bed, but realistically I was just grateful to have a big warm duvet around me and zero responsibilities (although a visit from Tom Hanks with some flowers would have been nice)
It made me realise that the last time I was run down was July, as I was super busy at the time I just pushed through it, but a wobble occurred and it caught me off balance this time. February has seemed like a long and uncertain month to me, and it felt like this happened as a result of it. My energy had felt low the whole month and although I was still doing things, each time it felt like the smallest task took up more energy than it normally would.
No matter what we put in place, sometimes we are guilty of just pushing through. But with some rest, the pressure eased and by the end of the week, I began to feel more like myself again. The ebb and flow of life seemed to resume back to its normal rhythm and I began to move forward again. Engaging fully again with those around me and my environment, slowly returning to listening to my body and inner voice which had become muffled. It was only yesterday afternoon that I decided to publish after a session of acupuncture, as it brought back my energy and focus. Sometimes we need a complete stop to reset and gain perspective.
Have you ever experienced a need for a complete stop?