We take our vitamins. We eat right. We get enough sleep. We exercise. We work on handling stress.
What we don’t do a lot of the time, though, is what we might most need to be better: Rest. R&R. Preferably before you’re ill, as a way to recharge your body and health and NOT be ill. But, especially if you’re ill. This is a time where a body in motion is not a good thing. It’s simply then a body that is going to feel like hell for longer than might have happened.
Ask me how I know this? Because I don’t listen to my own self at times. Why am I reminding you (and, thus, maybe me)? Because I think I turned a bout with a stomach virus into a 4-day thing vs. maybe the 24-hour thing it could have been.
Why? ‘Cuz I wouldn’t just cave in, once the initial part was over, and take it easy. Completely, utterly. Sure I was doing less. But not close to nothing. Not rest. To witness, on day 3, taking it “easy” and trying to catch up on a few things, I managed to rack up 10,000 steps. That, my folks, is not resting. I paid for that by feeling even worse that evening, half the night and the next morning. So not worth it. Then I finally (finally) said, “Self, you will rest today, no matter what.” 7,000 fewer steps later, and I felt nearly brand new.
Rest is powerful stuff when you need to heal. There’s no replacement for it. If you rest, you get better faster. If you’re worried about returning to life/work/whatever sooner, wouldn’t it be better if you could operate at 100 percent a shorter time later vs. barely dragging through for days? (It would, trust me.)
Rest is powerful stuff when you’re well, too. We don’t notice the immediate difference as easily then, but it’s going on. Your body is healing and repairing so, lucky you, you don’t even have to find out about the virus or disease that was brewing. Your body gets to do its thing well, and you are healthier. Your cells are always trying to help you out. Give them a chance.
