Taking some me time

I think we all live with guilt when we take a day for ourselves, it’s ingrained in our society to always be working and grafting even if we are sick. But taking some me time is so important for our mental and physical health so lets talk about it.

Last night I didn’t sleep too well, the reason was I was reading, and though I am often reading witchcraft books, this time it was fiction. I have been reading all the Zodiac Academy books and oh my goodness I am hooked they are so so good! So I stayed up late because I didnt have much left to read of book three and was unable to stop with so little left that I didn’t put my kindle down until 1am!

Of course, the moment I woke up I reached for my kindle again and bought book four unable to wait to know what happened next. I then preceeded to keep reading until after 2pm because every chapter is from a different person’s viewpoint and I was hooked on knowing how each person saw the situation.

Now, I am an adult and if I want to take a day to simply lay in my pjs reading I am perfectly within my rights to do so, but when I saw the time I was hit with guilt. Why was I not devouring my Intuitive Witchcraft book like this? I need to finish that book so I can review it for my YouTube channel in a couple of weeks. Why was I not writing out this blog post ready?

Pretty soon I had started to get down on myself, feeling guilty for taking a day to just chill without a list of things that needed doing in my head. But then I started thinking about a recent Instagram post by Chronically Jenni where she spoke about people telling her not to work so hard. She said it made her feel like flares of her illnesses were her fault, something that definitely resonated with me.

As people with chronic illnesses we have to walk a fine tightrope, either we are viewed as lazy and unmotivated if we aren’t working hard to go to work or ‘do things’. However, when we try and then feel sick or have our illnesses worsen we are told it is our fault and we must rest.

This balancing act is something we are used to and the guilt I felt when I tried to relax came from the same thinking, that if I rest I will be seen as lazy. This ableist thinking is ingrained in us to the point that just reading a book and enjoying some me time felt wrong and gave me so much guilt.

I talk a lot about self care and how it can improve our physical and mental health, taking some me time is so important. So don’t give in to that little voice of guilt in the back of your head, it is good to have a day off from those jobs and just rest so go and have some guilt free me time.

Thank you xx

Share this post: