Hibernate!

Maybe Seasonal Depression isn’t the worst.

Hey! don’t feel guilty

Bears take months to decompress

It’s been two weeks. Rest!

But I’m not a rummaging animal, surely I don’t need to hibernate.

Well, what is it even?

Hibernation: “a state of minimal activity and metabolic depression”. Metabolic depression sounds bad, but it’s really just the body going into power saving mode.

“It most commonly occurs during winter months”. So even if it isn’t snowing where you live, your unyielding inactivity and disinterest in participation of anything is well timed.

You acknowledge that your mind and body need rest after a hard day of work, right? That’s why you set your alarm 30 minutes later and you convince yourself to hit the sack, even though there’s an endless pile of work or play to be done.

You say sure, I had a tough week. I’ll rest during the weekend. So you turn off your alarm on Sundays, and when your body naturally rouses at 6, you go pee, scroll through your phone and cuddle your pillow back into dreamland. (I have the most vivid dreams at this morning snooze.)

So why do you feel guilty about a couple of weeks of seeming nothingness after 50 weeks on the hamster wheel.

Let me tell you a secret… You deserve rest. Even if you “haven’t done anything”. Even if you “haven’t been busy”. Even if you “didn’t do enough”. But much more that deserving rest, you actually need it to continue functioning. You need to take some time off to recharge.

My heart goes out to you if you simply cannot afford to rest at the moment. Rest time will come eventually. But please don’t wait for your body to force you into rest.

If, however, you’re fortunate to get some days off, don’t ruin it with guilty panic. Rest is a vital part of a full, happy and wholesome life. Sure you can use it to step back and take stock, schedule a spa day, or just put your feet up with a good book. For you, rest can mean spring cleaning and listening to your favourite podcasts or albums. Or maybe you plan to use the break to form a new healthy routine. Meditation? Sure! But rest can also mean bingeing the office in your jammies. There’s no ultimate “how to” for rest. If you need 18 hours of sleep and your lifestyle can afford it, by all means! Take what you need.

You’ll come back refreshed and better able to take on whatever the year brings.

Again, you deserve to just take a breather and just exist man! No pressure! There’s been enough time for pressure throughout the year, and best believe they’d be even more next year. But don’t go panicking about that yet. “Tomorrow will have its own anxiety”.

There’s a time for everything under the sun, even a time for worry. Now’s not the time to panic about the work you haven’t done, or the work you don’t have, the love that’s ending or the love that hasn’t begun.

Now’s the time for rest.

Rest.