Recovering from illness

Of course there is never a good time to get sick, but it always feels as if it's when you're the busiest. 

When I felt in pain a couple of weeks ago, I tried to brush it off since I had so much work to do. But when I went to the doctors, I was told that I had an illness that is often associated with stress. Very unsurprising! At first I was confused when the doctor asked if I wanted a medical certificate written up for the following week, but when the work week came around, I was very grateful to have the time off.

Nobody likes being sick. Yet I found there was almost a silver lining to the experience.

At first, I was treating my body as if everything was normal. Despite the intense pain, I attempted to watch my lectures, write my essays, and even wanted to work from home. This was obviously a ridiculous idea: my body was recovering from illness and I was on antibiotics. And clearly I wasn't listening to what the doctor had mentioned about alleviating stress...

I finally decided to listen to my body, and give myself a much needed break. I slept in past 6:30am. I had long baths and watched Netflix. I refused to look at my emails. 

This was exactly what both my physical and mental health needed! Typically, I attempted to fill up every single minute of the day with tasks, to feign productivity. A break was the very thing that I needed. I barely ever carve out time to just sit back and relax, and we all should be doing this.

Though I have learnt how bad this mindset is, to only feel the urge to take a break when I'm ill, relaxation is so important, at all times. So now that I'm better and back to my hectic routine, I've decided I'm going to change things. I will enjoy a nice warm bath soon - but I'm not waiting till the next time I get sick!