Rest... it's a rebellious act.

There is no shame in resting.

There was a time in which I was so addicted and domesticated to busyness and the work-hard narrative that I didn’t know and want to take time to rest and take care of myself. I felt ashamed in feeling unwell and not productive.

Yesterday, I was already feeling under the weather and so I dropped everything at once and prioritised my wellbeing. Today, I spent most of the day in bed and sleeping. That’s the way our body and mind recover. Shocker, isn’t it?

Though, as you can guess from this rant, today I have been contemplating the concept of self-care and why is so hard to give myself permission to dwell in resting, self-care and possibly indulgence. I’m discovering that this is probably the most powerful practice of self-acceptance and a rebellious act… in a society that doesn’t want us to stop at nothing.

I read recently, the most powerful tool of oppression is to keep us so busy with the daily struggle of our hectic lives, so that we don’t have time to connect all the dots and become truly enraged and engaged in what truly matters.

The way self-care is portrayed nowadays is also completely and utterly twisted. Firstly, self-care as a concept is almost exclusively aimed at women (generally wealthy white women who can afford the goods and services that get marketed to them as self-care). The not at all subtle suggestion is that women need to be reminded to care for themselves because, after all, we are so busy taking care of everyone else. And the even less subtle suggestion is that while we should be taking care of ourselves, that doesn’t absolve us from taking care of everyone else. More over, men as well are in deep need of self-care practices, in the most deep and intimate way, where they can build and practice their own tools for self-care… not waiting to receive it from the female caretakers.

Self-care should be considered a ‘best medicine discipline’ for everyone, because it shouldn’t be something to do once in a while, when the inner and outer worlds get dysfunctional or crazy. Taking care of ourselves is a necessity, in a way that doesn’t require to be called “indulging”, in order to restore balance. I made a a commitment to stay healthy and balanced as a regular practice, and I intend to keep the promise I made to myself.

Take care you all out there. Chose to be a rebel and snuggle with your teddy bear. Zzzz….