Just chill

Students relaxing via Photo Editor Kate Rodgers

Do you ever feel tired and like you just need to rest, but you have a million-and-one things on your mind that you can’t get rid of? You tell yourself you can’t nap, you can’t lay down, you’ve got to stay up and get that work done, but you’re exhausted, so you end up doing the work very slowly, procrastinating each part, and taking a million breaks. Before you know it, hours have gone by, and you’ve hardly done anything. 

Yeah, this has been me lately, and maybe this is you. If it is, maybe stick around and hear what else I have to say, just for fun.

So, I’ve been slowly coming to the conclusion of how silly it is to force myself to stay up and not relax when I’m unable to actually do work to my best ability. Many times, I could’ve utilized hours to take a nice nap and feel refreshed, where instead I guilted myself to get up and focus on all the work I have to get done. But I get like 0.5% of it done in the span of a couple hours because I’m drained and totally brain-foggy. So, my point here is—just chill!

I know that’s probably much easier said than done. You can’t help but feel guilty for taking the time to relax, but we’re human, and to function we quite literally need time to relax and actually relax, not just lay down while continuing to bombard your mind about all that you need to do when you get up. You may think it’s only in your mind, but trust me, doing that is exhausting you too—mentally and emotionally—just as physical activity exhausts you physically.

Sometimes it feels like if you take an actual break, you’ll never get anything done. But think about it—do you fail to actually get anything done anyway when you deny yourself this relaxation? If you do, just take that time to chill; in the end it will be far more efficient, and you deserve to relax when you need to relax! Listen to your mind and your body when it tells you you’re exhausted, and don’t feel guilty, or at least try not to. Everyone gets tired—it’s only human!

Taking real breaks is self-care, and we all need self-care to function to our best abilities. Taking care of ourselves is our number one job in life, and if we deny doing this job, we won’t be able to do anything else with our ultimate potential. 

I think you get the point now—when you need to chill, just chill. Lay down, take a nap, do some yoga, read your favorite book, whatever this chill time looks like to you, just do it. I’m quite confident that if you do, you’ll thank yourself later.