The Courage to Rest Is What Matters Most on Days When You Lack Motivation

There are days when I just can't seem to get into the groove.

Since I developed a mental illness and switched to working from home, the number of days where I just can't get things going has increased.

It's not that I have a specific pain or illness, but my body just feels sluggish and my head feels foggy for no apparent reason.

On days like that, I can't absorb anything even if I try to study, and I can't organize my thoughts at all even if I try to work.

Up until now, whether due to my temperament or my illness, I have been unable to accept these days that periodically come when I'm not at my best.

I would think it was outrageous to just rest and be idle when I wasn't even physically sick.

I felt that if I didn't do what I could, I was a failure, a piece of trash.

By cornering myself like that, I would simply turn a day where I wasn't at my best into a day where my mental health would collapse.

I have had many such days where I would self-induce a downward spiral.

After repeating such days until I was sick of them, I finally reached a realization, so I decided to write it down here.

This is a prescription for those who suffer from similar worries, and also a memorandum for my own way of living.

There is nothing you can do about days when you aren't at your best

Days when you aren't at your best will inevitably come.

Whether it's because I had trouble falling asleep last night, my mental state was already on a downward trend, or the atmospheric pressure was fluctuating wildly, days when I just can't get into the groove are bound to happen.

For those of us with mental disabilities, we might have more of those days than healthy people.

As I wrote earlier, I used to make excuses about it being laziness and try to push through it.

And then, because I couldn't concentrate as I wanted, my mental state would decline even further, and I would fall into an even more hopeless mood.

With that kind of attitude, there is no way my tasks or work would progress.

Repeating those days, I came to the realization that,
“Maybe it's wrong to try to work hard on those days in the first place.”
I gained this insight.

In this cutthroat world, modern people are busy every day, but I thought that maybe we need days to rest once in a while.

This is especially true for someone like me, who works from home where the line between work and rest is blurred.

Therefore, I have decided to decisively take a break on days when I feel like I am not in good form.

Deep down, I feel anxious, and I also have concerns about my income.

However, if I cannot rest when I should, my condition will continue to decline.

I thought that would be a much greater loss than just taking a single day off.

Today was exactly one of those 'days when I am not in good form'

I have been living my life normally while thinking about such things lately, but today, for the first time in a while, a day where I am not in good form has arrived.

Come to think of it, I had trouble falling asleep last night, and even after waking up, my head felt foggy and my body felt somewhat sluggish.

It is exactly one of those days where I am not feeling well, yet I am not sick or running a fever.

I had thought about doing what I could for a while, but based on the realization I wrote about earlier, I decided to decisively take a break today.

First, I made the decision not to work and tried not to look at any related websites.

And instead, I decided to write this article as a sample of how to spend a day when you are not in good form.

I thought I would go to sleep quickly after finishing this note article, but it is 9:00 PM while I am writing this.

It does not seem impossible to go to bed early, but if possible, I want to rest thoroughly.

So, I am summoning the courage and spending the money to indulge in a luxury I do not usually allow myself.

Today's Refresh Plan

After posting this note article, I will dedicate myself entirely to resting.

I love getting massages, and to my surprise, I took the plunge and ordered an outcall massage service today.

It is a service that comes to my home, and they apparently offer shiatsu, oil massage, head massage, and even lymphatic massage.

With the hope that my vague sense of feeling unwell might be related to things like my lymph nodes, I decided to treat myself to a luxury I do not usually indulge in.

Although it costs money, I decided that this kind of action might be necessary to summon the courage to take a break.

Even if the massage isn't particularly effective, I plan to go straight to sleep afterward, so I'm sure I'll feel more refreshed when I wake up than I do today.

I don't have the money to call for one every week, but as an occasional luxury, I've decided to enjoy a massage today.

If there is anyone like me who tends to spiral on days when they aren't feeling well, I hope reading this article helps you feel a little more at ease.

Humans aren't machines, so it's only natural to have days when you aren't at your best.

On such days, it's okay to cheat a little.
(Though perhaps there's no need to feel like it's cheating at all.)

On days when you feel like you're not doing well, taking a break is also the right answer.

It's not a bad thing at all, so you can just do your best starting tomorrow.

If you're still not feeling well tomorrow, let's bet on the day after.

Before you corner yourself unnecessarily, try being a little kinder to yourself.

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