Permission to Rest, Read and Recover!

Coach Jackie here. I am in the last stages of recovering from bronchitis. Ugg! Right? No fun!

Here is the thing. I rarely get sick. I am one of those unusual New Englanders who venture out in all kinds of weather, especially during the winter, and play outside in the cold. My favorite time of the year to hike is yes WINTER! I lead a hiking and social Meetup group for the LGBTQ+ community in Litchfield CT. Just as an example.

But I am not immune from getting sick and these past two weeks were a doozy!

Initially:

• I worried about not being available for my business.

• I felt guilty about not taking care of household stuff.

• I felt restless and wanted to move.

• I was concerned that I would lose the levels of fitness I had gained over the last several months after diligently going to the gym 4 times a week and hiking every weekend and so on ….

The upside is that those concerns lasted only about a couple of days. Not bad. With a lot of encouragement from my partner, family, and friends I received these reassurances:

My body needed rest to recover! PERIOD!

Yes, I could step away from work, exercise, and chores and things would not fall apart.

Instead, I:

• Read two great books! What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo and Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro; one nonfiction and the other fiction. Great reads BTW. I highly recommend them both!

• Realized that I want to start a monthly book club and add that to my Meetup group

• Slept a lot! I needed it.

• Binged on the Netflix series, Marco Polo. Not done yet … but am LOVING IT!

• Wore no makeup for almost two weeks! Yeah!!!

By showing myself a high level of self-love and self-care, with the support of my partner, I am getting better every day and will return healthier than before.

Just curious – What have you learned when you have allowed yourself to rest & recover even during random times throughout your day? I would love to hear your thoughts!