Rest and Relaxation during #QuarantineLife
Has your quarantine life taken a toll on your sleep, personal downtime (rest) or your ability to relax your brain? I know mine has, and at times it’s been a shaky transition to remember that as much as life has changed, the rules of self-care still apply.
Although having to stay at home, and not having access to the gym and swimming pool or being able to see friends and socialize was difficult to get used to, there was one thing that felt okay about our new normal. Prior, I spent such a great deal of time running to appointments, training for my sport, and traveling for work. There were many places to go and people to see, and I was on the go. A lot.
Once we began to shelter-in-place, I must admit I was happy to have these constraints that forced me to spend a good chunk of time at home, which I have spent largely in my office. And in my conversations with many solopreneurs, this has been a gift of time to work on our businesses, getting caught up on some of the things that fall through the cracks, while beginning new projects that are often put to the side when we’re busy working in our businesses.
I was absolutely thrilled that this time came in the midst of working on a new book, because I had hours of uninterrupted time to research and write each day, and I had been enjoying it, until about 10 days ago, when I couldn’t get a single thought to come to mind and sitting at my desk was next to impossible to do. I didn’t feel bad, I just felt—flat. Unmotivated.
It took a little time to come to the realization. I was using my time wisely, or so I thought. My book writing became my work time, which sometimes bled into my workout time, and also became my recreational time. Everything seemed perfect to me. I enjoy writing, was loving what I was doing, and getting the opportunity to spend hours and hours on it like I never have before.
So, when I got to my desk one day and found out my brain wasn’t working and there was nothing I could do to coax it into jumpstarting, I realized what had happened. I had reached a state of burnout. And it didn’t take long. Five weeks, maybe, but add on top of work, the consistent underlying stress of this unusual time in history, not having the typical social or physical outlets, having to stay at home, and having a super flexible (no structure) schedule, I worked myself into a mental fatigue.
It reminded me of how absorbed I was when training for an Ironman. The days were long, between working full-time and working out up to 25 hours per week. And the workouts were intense—sometimes up to 10-hour-long rides in a single day. I didn’t want to take a day off for fear I’d somehow lose months of fitness in one day. But my coach was monitoring me, he was prescribing the workouts, and gathering data on my progress. And what was he absolutely adamant about that I have not been diligent about in this past couple of months?
Rest. His saying exactly, “As long as you have put in the training, the REST is what will make you strong.”
As an athlete, I know the importance of recovery and taking a break. Even when I love what I’m doing and have great goals in front of me, I know I have to recover. I understand that if I break my body down by training, it rebuilds through rest. I know this. And I apply it in my athletic life. But sometimes my work life gets carried away and I don’t give it that opportunity. I don’t have someone monitoring me and telling me when it’s time to get up and away from the desk. Time to go for a stroll on the bike path. I’m goal-oriented and focused. And sometimes, act as if the process of recovery is optional. It’s not.
So now, I have to dig myself out. I have a new post-it note on my desk that says “Step. Away. From. The. Computer.” It’s good to write, and good to feel productive and yes hitting my self-imposed deadline sounds so appealing. But not at the expense of exhausting my brain and my body.
As a result, I am beginning to structure my work, like my workouts. Write it down. Plan for breaks. Figure out what days will be for “recovery” and what those days will entail. Because sometimes when you work at home, it seems like an email is always calling. The phone begs to be picked up. And it takes discipline to stand up to it and say “No! It’s me time.”
I have finally decided to give myself some grace and realized that we are all under more pressure these days whether self-imposed or not, simply because of the new, uncertain life rules. And to get through this time, we’ll all need to think about how we are giving both our brains and our bodies time to reboot, or the consequences could put us in harm’s way—including lowering our immune system’s ability to fight off illness and disease. Definitely not what we need right now.
With that in mind, what are you doing to rest and care for your body?
