My instinct when I’m ill…assuming I’m this kind of ill,
where I am relatively fine, rather than if I am actually throwing up or delirious
with fever or something…is to battle through it. This probably stems from four
years of being in full time education where I was working towards important
exams and missing lessons and catching up was stressful and I preferred to go
to school and deal with feeling ill and crap.
But today I made a very conscious effort not to do that. There’s quite a lot of
stuff I need to get done; I’m going to New Mexico in August and in addition to
needing to sort out stuff for that, it’s compressed the amount of time I have
to do all the other things I have to do over summer. After I’ve written this
blog post I’m probably gonna write myself a very long to do list for tomorrow.
But I’m more likely to be able to get through that to do list because I’ve
given myself a break today to let my body somewhat recover. Knowing
me-with-a-cold, this cold will probably linger for ages, but at least, by
resting, I’m more likely to get through this initial actually-feeling-really-crap-rather-than-just-sniffy
stage. If I’d gone with my instinct to power through I’d have defiantly got
through more today, but I’d have prolonged me being ill and sluggish and in
terms of effort to productivity; my productivity over the next few days would
have been lower than it’s, hopefully, gonna be.
I also need to be aware that how I rest mentally is very
different to how I should rest if I’m ill. Doing what I’ve done today…mostly
watching lots of Modern Family and the Simpsons, as well as sleeping till gone
noon…doesn’t make me feel mentally rested; it actually makes me feel restless.
If I need a break from things I’m best off reading or seeing friends; but
those, especially the latter, are not conducive to encouraging my immune system
to fighting off a cold.
I certainly feel better than I did this morning, and
hopefully tomorrow fighting the urge to power through being ill will have paid
off and I’ll feel a lot better.
