Over the past 3 weeks or so I’ve had it rough. My social battery has been depleted twice, my anxiety has been through the roof, my work life has also been pretty busy and I was also going through some random personal issues. Needless to say, this adult midterm has been a gift to me. I needed to rest and reset so I can go back to functioning at my optimum level. I know I’ve said this 100 times but rest is one of the most important ingredients for success, happiness, health and productivity.
Without taking the time to rest as and when required, we experience stress, burnout, anxiety and in all honesty we work less effectively and efficiently as we otherwise would have. Resting is not only good for productivity though, it also gives our bodies the space & time to heal, boosts your creativity, reduces stress, and also enhances our decision making (think of how we always say ‘sleep on it’). Basically, resting is refilling your tanks.
I noticed a few things about me when I need to reset. One, I’m not as happy as I usually am -as in I’m the exact opposite of lively and quite boring. Two, I always want to be in bed. Three, my morning and bedtime routines are thrown out the window. I start waking up at like 8am which is super late for me and even after I wake up I grab my phone first and not to put on music, but to scroll aimlessly on Instagram. Four, my room looks like my crowded and tired state of mind. Five, I have no energy for social interaction.
how you guys know you need to reset
Resetting to me looks like first and foremost doing nothing! Depending on how exhausted I am, I take 2-4 days to reset. Day one like I said is for doing nothing. Literally I’ll sleep, watch my favorite shows and eat. That’s it. Then on the second day, cause I’ll be bored of doing nothing (unless of course I’m very exhausted), I’ll clean up my space so that my mind also feels cleaner and also cause I can’t keep living like a pig 😅. Then I do things that make me happy like calling my friends, disturbing my sister, reading a book, my hobbies and taking one last nap. Then after I’ve had enough, in the evening I go back to the drawing board and figure out what my new morning and bedtime routines will look like (sometimes they stay the same), and plan my new week if it's a Sunday.
how resetting looks like for you guys
After resetting, as one of my best friends would say I feel like ‘nimeoga hadi akili’. I feel so ready to take on the world and anything it has to offer or throw at me. Suddenly my mind is a magnet for ideas and I can see the solutions to the things I was struggling with so clearly. In fact, me typing up this blog post on a Tuesday morning wouldn’t be possible without the much needed reset time. I’m so glad I’ve taken the time to reset and when I say I’m so grateful for this break, I mean it in every sense of the word. I needed this. I can feel myself getting back to the Wendy that was described in the YM life article haha!
how you guys feel after resetting
That’s all for today’s blog post. I hope this period provided you with the rest you needed. And if not, I hope you create time to rest and reset in whatever way makes sense to you.
-All the love, Wendy xx