SPOONIE WRITE: LEARNING TO REST
This feels like a post I could have written so many times in the past. When I talk about taking breaks, and not having to 'earn' time off, it's become the hill I will die on, and because of that, I'm kinda known for it. The problem is that while I believe all of that is true one thousand percent, I'm not always good at following my own advice, which I think is a somewhat universal thing, the sepsis last year, and the long recovery following really schooled me on how all of what I've preached is very much applicable to me too.
I mean I was good at taking at least two days off completely every month, and again, to be fair, I was not (am still not and never will be) working 8 hours every day. It was at most three hours, and then I'd have the rest of the day off. So in my head, it made some sort of sense, but oh boy, when I tell you what it's like to go from being able to do that to not even being capable of sitting up for 30 mins straight, it's a whole lot to appreciate and learn from.
Which brings me to the point and topic, that you will, spoonie or otherwise, have times in your life when you are forced to learn just what you personally will need to do to actually be properly resting. Like I said, it took almost dying for me to really learn how I personally rest. Yes, I had ways before, but sometimes, you will need different, and new, tools in your toolbox when it comes to resting.
For example, I have always been a voracious reader. This was, before the sepsis, my primary way of resting and recharging. While I've been an ebook only reader for a while, and while I've have a kindle also for a long while, it's always been a reliable thing. read, settle in, disconnect the author brain at times, and just lose myself in a story. It had always been something that worked for me. To the point when I got home, I was mentally planning my TBR for the long recovery ahead.
Only that wasn't how things went. I tried, believe me I tried, but my mind could not latch on and stay focused. What had once been a way to escape, a way to heal, became something where I didn't even really follow the stories enough to be able to really settle in with them. I'd dropped my goodreads goal twice, I met it, but at a much lower amount that I would have, I believe, without the sepsis.
Now don't get me wrong, I did not abandon reading, and I did find the solution and such, and am now back to being comfortable and can settle in with a book like before, but I had to try and find something new, something that I could focus on, and would allow me t disconnect and rest. YouTube helped there. I found a few true crime channels that had that effect on me. I found myself using social media more than before. All of which were little to do with writing and the author life, they were just ways for me to rest and recover. I spent a lot of time chatting with friends, curling up with the kitties, napping, and just trying to find my way back, and also accept that rest, like I've been telling so many others all this time, is not optional. You just gotta find what works for you.
Good luck, and just remember that it takes as long as it takes, and that's okay!
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