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I wasted another day

by not resting

By Corinn Published 4 years ago 3 min read
photo by me, sharing journaled thoughts about rest.

To me, a much too busy day with zero time spent with yourself is a day wasted. Because if you don’t take time to spend by yourself or to care for yourself then what is the purpose? The purpose of every other to-do list item you accomplished that day?

Rest is a priority that is very important to me. it always has been, so when I (rarely) take away one of my rest days to put extra work into a project where needed, I feel like I have failed myself.

For me, the scariest thing about "adulting" is

not resting.

that people seem to be conditioned to not rest, or to not think rest is important and instead feel the need to spend all their spare time being productive, monetizing every habit as “side hustles” or “small businesses”.

I don't buy it.

I never have.

With rest being a habit so important to me, I have always had priorities different than my immediate family and friends, because I'm the friend who prioritizes a good time over a logical decision. I've never been one to believe in the "burn yourself out hustling to meet standards under capitalism until you die" mentality. Our bodies nor our souls were not made for such. we were not made only to burnout.

Although I have always prioritized rest, I never confidently felt it was "acceptable". from my few semesters in college, I still had more spare time than immediate family and a few friends. because I prioritized having spare time. but I also wondered if ~I~ was the one doing something wrong. I never felt comfortable in making my prioritized rest known to others, for a self conscious fear of being judged, deemed "lazy" or "unsuccessful". recently, my priorities different than theirs have included rest more than they ever have.

I believe that when you rest, a healing (maybe subconsciously) takes place. If you allow it intentionally enough, rest can change you.

I feel as though people don’t want to rest because people don’t want to be left alone with themselves. People don’t want to feel any suppressed emotions or think about any suppressed thoughts. They don’t want to be hurt. You often hear advice for the grieving that usually sounds like “keep yourself busy (and you won’t think about it)”. Stay busy enough, work enough, fill your empty time with anything and everything until you are no longer empty. Do this and you won’t feel any hurt, any emptiness, any grief, any spare emotion. All the bad you don’t want to face will go away over time as long as you keep yourself busy (without rest).

Right?

I have recently come to find that this isn’t so true.

A few months ago, I decided to take myself on a long overdue journey to heal my declining mental health. This journey has included rest as my biggest priority.

As both someone grieving and someone simply burnt out, I finally understood that “keeping myself busy” was only hurting me long term, and a big part of the reason I was feeling so burnt out. So--- I decided to make changes.

I decided to rest.

and rest for me looks like:

Prioritizing the days I give myself “off”.

Setting days for house chores/small daily tasks, as to not burn myself out by doing repetitive small tasks every day.

Shutting social media out, pretending it doesnt exist, and putting the phone away.

Rest around holidays. those days between christmas and new years where time doesn't exist? I spend those days doing absolutely nothing. resting. resetting. taking care of myself. to me, there is 0 reason to be productive during those days, other than taking care of yourself. that is productive. Giving yourself the time to enjoy your holiday season is productive.

Taking time off work if I feel like I need it

Taking time off school if I feel like I need it

Not looking for validation of any of the aforementioned from anyone outside myself.

SLOWLY.

My word for myself recently has been "slowly".

My resolution to myself is to start slowly. I wrote intentions for myself for 2022, starting with the next few days/weeks. Starting little by little, starting slowly.

To declutter and detox all aspects of my life, physically and emotionally. slowly.

To prioritize my health again by forming/continuing specific healthy habits and shifting towards a healthier diet. slowly.

To learn my mind and form intentions based off what my mind needs—learning to heal my mental/physical energy from the inside out.

To reset.

To rest.

I’m very recently learning that my priorities, time, and rest don’t need to be acceptable to anyone but myself. that I can block out anyones words that aren’t helpful to my healing or rest. And another part of my 2022 intentions is to further accept this. to accept rest.

I hope that you accept this for yourself as well:

you have permission to rest.

art

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