Good morning all you beautiful people,
It’s so great to be here again and I have a really special topic for you today. This topic is plastered everywhere right now as people realize their unhealthy habits and strive to better themselves and be healthier and support their mental health all while doing any number of other every day tasks.
The reason I wanted to get in on this topic only now is because I’ve been noticing throughout this semester my stress levels and the types of stresses in my life while also noticing how I’m supporting myself (or the lack of support I’m giving myself) in some areas of my life. Not just that, but how unhealthy my studying was becoming. I would spend hours in front of my computer studying my textbook, reading articles, or taking notes from my classes. And overusing technology is bad for a number of reasons. But I noticed I was feeling far more fatigued as I was worrying about all the assignments due and my upcoming exams among a list of others. I was exhausted from the minute I woke up in the morning for my early classes, to the time I went to bed and I was averaging 2 meals a day and 2+ cups of coffee or any other caffeinated drinks.
I found my body dragging me to bed for naps more often than I had intended and I was losing hours of my day because of it. Which caused me to fall even farther behind. Then I spent my reading week catching up and flooding my days with homework, studying and household tasks and spent very little of this time actually relaxing and enjoying myself. I scheduled my whole week off around how much school tasks I was hoping to finish. This has resulted in some pushback the last couple of weeks since reading week ended. My mind hasn’t been on school as of late and I’ve been spending more time doing other more enjoyable tasks than I have doing anything related to school.
This was a very hard lesson I had to learn and I realize had I spent more of my reading week resting and getting myself back to normal form the chaos that school was throwing at me, I might have been able to catch up faster when I returned to school mode after my holiday.
But, some lessons you have to learn the hard way. Now if I’m hungry, I eat what I want when I want it and I always bring water with me or have it on my desk in case I’m thirsty or remember that I should be drinking more.
Even incorporating these things has helped me feel more rested and energized and I think I’ve just recently caught up on sleep that I feel rested and ready to tackle the rest of the semester and do my very best.
Sometimes the best thing you can do is take some resting time for yourself. Especially if it means keeping up with your body’s needs because sooner or later you will experience some pushback. And while I was very lucky, it could’ve been a lot worse where I got sick for a week or more or I had missed several assignments and lost large chunks of my grade.
Remember, the best thing you can do to help yourself succeed is to give yourself rest when you need it so you don’t burn out. Because when you burn out your body forced you to rest whether you have the time or not.
I’ve also been sure to allow myself time to write, even if it is writing a post here for the blog because writing is where I thrive. I let me creativity take over and shine and it energizes me and gives my hands and soul some amount of peace.
I hope this helps someone reading it or makes you feel less alone. No it isn’t just you. Many of us just don’t fit into this capitalist, work-till-you-die society built up around us. And it’s okay to take a rest, to slow down when you need to.
Let yourself thrive, let yourself rest and recuperate, let yourself heal so you can be better when the healing is all done.
Happy reading and writing guys, until next time.
Celine Rose Marie
