untonuggan: Person with prosthetic legs doing pilates (aimeepilates)
lizcommotion ([personal profile] untonuggan) wrote2013-11-12 05:21 am

NaBloPoMo Day 12: I hate resting

I get sick a lot, and doctors always tell you to frelling rest. Well, I have news for them: resting is hard, especially when you have generations of the Protestant Work Ethic kicking around in the back of your brain telling you that you are only worthwhile if you "accomplish" things.

Yesterday I managed to rest because I was too tired to knit. Too tired to knit = yeahhhh, Houston, there's a problem. So I slept, a lot.

Today I am going to try to keep things low energy but not boring. Things on my low-energy list:
  • write letters
  • knit, if body allows
  • sort papers (or digital files)
  • steamy shower
  • read a magazine (if lyrica cooperates >.<)
  • etc.
What do you do when you need to rest, be it your whole body or a particular body part, and you just don't want to? Do you reach a compromise with yourself, go for resting all the way, or just say "frell it" and ignore the doctor's advice?
syntaxofthings: Death Fae from the Fey Tarot (Default)

[personal profile] syntaxofthings 2013-11-12 03:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Aggggggh. Resting fucking sucks. I'm supposed to be "resting" my wrists but IT IS COLD. I WANT TO KNIT MYSELF WARM THINGS. And crochet! I had hoped that crochet might work out a bit better; nope. Stupid wrists are in pain. I don't know what to do either.
anke: (Default)

[personal profile] anke 2013-11-12 04:57 pm (UTC)(link)
I have the opposite problem: I spend too much time doing low-energy stuff, like simple browser games, or lying on the sofa because I feel too tired to do anything, but it's too early to go to bed.

I'd be really screwed if a doctor told me I had to rest my right hand, though. Couldn't work at the computer, couldn't draw, would have trouble reading...
sage: Still of Natasha Romanova from Iron Man 2 (season: autumn)

[personal profile] sage 2013-11-12 06:02 pm (UTC)(link)
There's a line between doing enough physical activity that I can manage to sleep at night, and doing so much that I further injure myself. That line is ever-shifting and largely unpredictable, so it's a matter of paying constant attention. For instance, doing the dishes is work. Cooking is work. Doing either or both may exhaust me on a bad day or be fine on a good day. I won't know 'til I've done them.

Then, if I spend the day editing and solving internet problems (sitting still, not cooking beyond the microwave and ignoring the dishes), then I've still had an exhausting brain-work day. That doesn't count as rest at all because my brain's been fully engaged. Granted, I may have trouble sleeping because my body didn't move around enough, but brain work is still work.

Real rest, for me, is in doing things like listening to a book and playing spider solitaire for hours on end. Crochet is sometimes work, especially with tight gauge and a lot of increases/decreases. If it's a zen-state repetition with a loose gauge, then it's rest.

It can take a while (years, in my case) to internalize that Ordered Rest *is* work and the outcome from it is a healing, rested body. There are no points for stoically pushing through. The only points are for resting as ordered. Then you rack up new spoons. :)
shehasathree: (Default)

[personal profile] shehasathree 2013-11-13 03:50 am (UTC)(link)
There's a line between doing enough physical activity that I can manage to sleep at night, and doing so much that I further injure myself. That line is ever-shifting and largely unpredictable, so it's a matter of paying constant attention. For instance, doing the dishes is work. Cooking is work. Doing either or both may exhaust me on a bad day or be fine on a good day. I won't know 'til I've done them.

So identify with this.
majoline: picture of Majoline, mother of Bon Mucho in Loco Roco 2 (Default)

[personal profile] majoline 2013-11-12 07:00 pm (UTC)(link)
After ignoring all the warning signs and then the orders to rest and having already burnt myself out once, I ended up in the hospital and in ICU through sheer bloody stubbornness.

I have learnt very forcefully the virtue of not working oneself to injury/death.
majoline: picture of Majoline, mother of Bon Mucho in Loco Roco 2 (Default)

[personal profile] majoline 2013-11-13 03:03 am (UTC)(link)
You're welcome! I don't mind using myself as a negative reminder, because it really sucks and I would spare everyone the experience.

[personal profile] indywind 2013-11-12 07:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Scheduled Intentional Napping.

somehow putting resting "activities" on my to-do list, and even allocating specific time for them (versus just "after I get the other (real, valuable) stuff done", helps me remember that they too are important activities.

I think it may also help that at least 2x a week I am standing in a yoga class, reminding other people that hey have busted butt for an hour just so they could feel "ready" for 5 minutes in resting pose --but not so they can earn it, because the right to just be isn't something you have to earn. It isn't the poses the make one ready--because everyone has permission to skip or modify any or all of the poses--it's just a long ritual to validate the permission we already have. Maybe repeating that--effectively meditating on it every week-- finally helps it sink in.
alee_grrl: A kitty peeking out from between a stack of books and a cup of coffee. (Default)

[personal profile] alee_grrl 2013-11-13 12:12 am (UTC)(link)
I find resting is often a compromise for me, and I am fortunate that I have never fully lost my ability to comprehend what I'm reading. So for me resting tends to be music and reading (usually very light reading--what I like to refer to as brain candy or fluff). On really bad days I manage to convince myself that it is okay to curl up in bed or on the couch and just watch something for a while. But "vegging out" in that sense tends to make me feel guilty because of weird childhood associations. Scheduling naps and rest activity helps sometimes.
alee_grrl: A kitty peeking out from between a stack of books and a cup of coffee. (Default)

[personal profile] alee_grrl 2013-11-13 12:55 pm (UTC)(link)
<3 I hope you get that back at some point too!
shehasathree: (Default)

[personal profile] shehasathree 2013-11-13 03:47 am (UTC)(link)
ell, I have news for them: resting is hard, especially when you have generations of the Protestant Work Ethic kicking around in the back of your brain telling you that you are only worthwhile if you "accomplish" things.

Ugh. Yes, yes ,yes. >:(