Don’t Be Afraid To Take Some Time For Yourself

Part of the recovery for any illness or injury is rest. You don’t immediately jump up and down after the doctor puts a cast on your broken leg, and you don’t go jogging when you’ve got pneumonia. Mental illness is no different – recovery takes a lot of work, but also time and rest.

Here are seven of the things that I do when taking some time for myself:

  • Spend some time where I do my best to worry about the things that are bothering me so they don’t bother me as much later,
  • Meditate or do breathing or muscle relaxation exercises,
  • Do my best to get enough sleep,
  • Get some exercise,
  • Eat properly,
  • Spend some time on one or more of my hobbies, and
  • Listen to the kind of uptempo music I like.

I do my best to make time to do these seven things every day. Some days it can be difficult, particularly when I’m feeling pretty down or have a busy schedule. I think it’s okay to miss a day or two here or there, but it’s really important to me to keep doing those seven things. Sleep, in particular, is very important for me. If I don’t get about nine hours of sleep, my mood darkens and all I want to do is hide in the basement.

To set time aside, I’ve had to make some sacrifices. I don’t have as many hobbies as I used to (although J will probably say I still have too many), and I’ve cut way back on the time I spend using my computer or tablet. Part of that is because I don’t enjoy computers the way I used to (in fact, there are many aspects of them that I am really uncomfortable with now), and the other part is that I could see how many hours I wasted just sitting in front of a screen, accomplishing nothing.

I used to have three blogs but I felt that I had to keep posting content and that was stressing me out. I shuttered them all and started this one and made myself a deal: if I didn’t have anything to say on a particular day or not enough time, I wouldn’t post. That has made this site a lot easier and more enjoyable for me.

I think I’m getting a little off-topic here but it doesn’t hurt to look at the things you do and decide whether letting some of them go would make your life easier. Make some time somewhere during the day when you can sit down and take a couple of minutes to recharge. It can make a world of difference.

Stay safe!

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