Recovery isn’t rest
I have kept a very low profile so far in 2024.
The forward-looking part of my Year Compass remains a work in progress; messages remain unanswered on my phone; and notebooks are scrawled with lists of things I’ve yet to do.
The reason for this is as simple as it is boring. I worked until just before Christmas Eve, and at some point between Christmas and New Year, my body realised that I could have a break .. and it broke.
So, for the last month, all I’ve wanted to do (and, for the most part, all I’ve been able to do) has been sleep or eat.
(You know those animals who hibernate through the winter months? I haven’t identified which one is my spirit animal yet, but clearly, it’s one of those buggers.)
Now, I’m not the only one who’s finding January an uphill struggle. Almost everyone I know is battling with viruses or exhaustion.
So conversations this month have been missing the one word we usually hear at this time of the year: resolutions.
Because when you’re feeling like a week-old empty crisp packet, you just don’t have the wherewithal to make changes or new habits.
Something that’s helping me make peace with an apparent lack of progress is a reminder my friend, the neurodiversity coach Matthew Bellringer, shared about the Celtic approach to the calendar.
He pointed out to me the absolutely obvious; that the 1st of January is still the middle of winter.
In fact, it’s not until the 1st of February, when Imbolc is celebrated, that things are said to start growing underground. And not until the 1st of May, Beltane, are those things seen to shoot their sprouts above the earth.
When looked at from that perspective, New Year resolutions are pretty daft, right?
Because here’s the thing: I’m sleeping as much as I can and cutting my cloth according to however much energy I have, but what I’m experiencing isn’t rest but recovery.
When I take things easy, it’s because my tank is so low that I need to top it up before I go onto the next thing. I’m still below what I consider my baseline of health.
But I think the biggest difference for me between recovery and rest is that when I’m resting, new ideas and plans spring into my mind unbidden. It’s like there’s the energy for me to suddenly notice things or have new ideas, whereas in recovery mode, I’m just focused on surviving until the next thing I have to do.
And so, I’m curious: can you be a little kinder to yourself right now and cut yourself some slack if you’re not where you wanted to be so far this year?
Can we allow things to start growing underground and be patient until it’s time for that process to begin?
And, if you’re struggling, can you recognise that maybe it’s not just rest you need but recovery, and allow the space for that to happen?
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Photo by Lisa Fotios: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-wearing-pair-of-black-slides-1272328/
