The holidays create some push through. While we are chronically ill, everything takes more effort, creating more pushing to do the basic things, like holidays. Time to take a deep breath and rest. Do we even know how to rest? Our current culture has taught us how to push through everything. What are our resting skills?
No matter how well the holidays were, while we are chronically ill, it took extra effort to get through.
To move forward, instead of getting stuck in the holiday push through, first rest. Rest your mind and body. Let things be for a time. Let the dust settle from the holidays.
Don’t get stuck in anything negative that might have happened. Creating that rerun in your minds-eye keeps you stuck. If there is anything that action can fix, do it. Otherwise, there is a boatload of things we simply cannot change. We are on a health mission to move through chronic illness so we cannot get stuck on any negativity of the holidays that we have no control over.
Acknowledging any negative events of the holidays that may have happened helps to move through it. It happened. It is real. Acknowledge it. Then envision letting it go when you are ready. The acknowledgment will help you move through it instead of getting stuck.
Treasure the good stuff that happened over the holidays. Don’t let anything negative shadow the positive. We have a tendency of allowing our thoughts to focus on the negative which lessen the impact of the positive.
Learning How to Rest Gives Us a Chance to Listen to Our Thought Life
If you are like I am, it is hard to truly rest, it is hard to settle my mind and stop the negative self-talk. The holidays can trigger so many emotions, memories, and expectations that negative self-talk can actually increase.
Take Action to Rest
If you cannot settle the negative self-talk, the wandering mental reruns of any holiday negativity, then take action. Taking simple actions can calm the thinking, calm the pushing through.
Grab a cup of your favorite warm drink and get outside and breath in the crisp winter air. Feel the freezing rain on your cheeks. Wake yourself up so you can move through the negativity and stop pushing through it. Let yourself rest from any of the negativity you can.
Write any thank you notes that you can. Being thankful usually calms our minds, allowing us to rest our souls. Resting our souls gets us farther down the healing path.
Tomorrow Will Come Soon Enough
See if you can truly take a day off from pushing through. Tomorrow will be there, it will come soon enough. What would happen if you did not worry about tomorrow? What would happen if you chose NOT to push through today but instead simply rest?
A healing journey teaches us when to rest and when to push through. Learning the skill of resting our bodies and minds gets us down that path with more ease. Resting helps us nourish our bodies and minds so that when it is time to push through a difficult healing task, we have the resources to do so.
Have you learned to rest? Can you hear the quiet of your resting mind?
Maribeth Baxter, MBNC (Certified Mind-Body Nourishment Coach)
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