Resting to Heal
Did you catch Adele’s tearful cancellation of her early 2022 concert in Las Vegas as a result of Covid complications in her crew? Or how about gymnast Simone Biles' shocking decision to withdraw from five of her six finals at the Tokyo Olympics as a result of the “twisties” (a dangerous condition where an athlete loses their spatial awareness as they perform)? Both of these women did something tremendously brave that took a lot of courage. Instead of pushing through, instead of pushing even harder when illness and disease showed up, they chose rest. In doing so, they raised their chins and essentially declared, “I will not ignore the needs of my body in order to please others. I will not sacrifice the wellbeing of my team so that you can have fun or enjoy a show.”
What is it that makes resting so hard? Is it the fact that we feel we’re letting others down? I think it is. I know whenever I get sick there’s a complicated reaction that takes place in my gut. On the one hand, I sink into my bed in relief thinking, “Finally my symptoms are bad enough that I can justify actually resting!” On the other hand, I know my husband will pick up all the slack that I create by not fulfilling my normal role in our family, and I feel at least a prick (if not a landslide) of guilt about that. As a mother, my rest often means more work for someone else or that some of the needs of my children go unmet. That’s hard. It hurts to be honest. It tempts me to keep going, to push past the point of listening to my body.
Physiotherapist Joshua Loane echoes this in a warning he gives on his website. “Not only does avoiding recommended rest periods result in increased healing times, but it can also result in secondary (sometimes more serious) injuries. This is largely due to the body compensating to protect the injured area which causes increased load on another area of the body. For example, I had a client with a moderate ankle sprain who needed to rest from sport for 1-2 weeks. Instead, she pushed through the injury and ended up getting a stress fracture in her foot ultimately resulting in having more than 2 months off. As one would say, short term pain for long term gain!” (Loane, 2021).
The next time you feel your body caving to stress or an injury, give yourself the permission to rest! Ask for what you need, apologize if you feel that it inconveniences someone else, and then move on. Rest isn’t a luxury. It’s a basic human need and there’s no need to justify that.
Reference: Loane, J. (2021). The importance of rest for injury recovery. Kinematics. Retrieved from https://kinematics.com.au/rest-for-injury-recovery/.
Challenges/Points:
We often avoid resting because we perceive it as letting others down or quitting when in fact, it’s what our bodies need.
When we refuse to rest, we can actually injure ourselves further or cause greater damage.
The next time you feel your body asking for rest, give yourself whatever permission you need.
Questions:
Do you have a hard time resting?
What are the things you tell yourself about resting?
How can you carve out more space for rest in your life when you need it?
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