Today, I want to share with you my last three weeks that I took off for self-care, why I did it and what exactly happened. In one of my latest blog posts, I shared why doing nothing can be the best thing for your self-care and this is exactly what I did myself this time.
Firstly, I want to make it clear, I am waiting for my work permit in the US and I can’t work right now, so I already have all the time in the world. But I get busy every day writing, making content, entertaining myself with different hobbies, learning new things. I am extremely lucky to have all this free time. I could’ve also not gotten myself busy this whole time but I just don’t want my brain to die and I love creating, in general.
My time for self-care
My initial plan was to take one week off to recharge, and afterward, I planned to go back to writing blog posts, creating new content and studying. But after the first week, I still felt very sad, unmotivated, and weak. On top of that, on 02/24/2022 Russia invaded Ukraine and I felt terrified and even more upset. I am Russian-speaking from Latvia and this is all so close to my home country, and to be honest, I felt like I had a hole in my heart when I heard this news. So I just couldn’t make myself to do anything. I could only cry and share information about the current situation. And my time went like this:
Week 1: Ok, I will just relax and take care of myself.
Week 2: Not ready to go back, need more time.
Week 3: I feel hopeless and weak.
Although, at the end of the third week, I felt more hopeful and positive, and I thought that this was time to go back.
Why I decided to take time off for self-care?
I decided to take some time off for self-care because I felt uninspired for some time and just exhausted. Sometimes I feel like I am being trapped in a box. I can’t drive, work, and do normal things until I get my work permit. So this has been really hard, on top of that not socializing often can get very upsetting. So this was my main reason for taking some time off for self-care and deep shadow work.
I think it is important to take time off even if it’s for one day or a few hours. There are times when we simply need to disconnect and recharge.
Currently, I have 3 moods and this was also something that motivated me to spend some time away from creating content the last week. I knew I had to understand myself better. My moods (still) are:
- Tomorrow is not promised, so why do anything?
- Tomorrow is not promised, so today I have to do whatever I can.
- Everything is ok, I just need to carry on as before and focus on my goals.
I keep working on the way I feel and try to be more optimistic.
What did I do and didn’t do?
So to be honest, I didn’t do much these past three weeks. So it’s easier to name things I didn’t do:
- I didn’t exercise
- I didn’t eat healthy
- I didn’t read
- I didn’t journal
- I didn’t do any skincare
- I didn’t follow BodyFast schedule
- I didn’t wake up early
- I didn’t take cold showers
- I didn’t do face massage
I can tell you though, I did watch a lot of Real Housewives of New York, I colored, listened to a lot of music, ate a lot of cookies and ice cream, and in general did a lot on nothingness.
After the first week, I didn’t feel anything – not tired nor relaxed. The only thing I kind of felt was guilt for doing nothing. But I told myself from the start that I will not feel guilty for taking care of myself. I allowed myself to be free and relax.
After the second week, I felt better and actually started writing blog posts on Monday but then Tuesday happened and I couldn’t put myself back together.
After the third week, I felt better and ready to start creating content. I also felt like I went through different phases from hopelessness and apathy to denial and finally to happiness.
Benefits and disadvantages of longer time off
There are multiple advantages of taking any amount of time off for self-care and disconnecting. Some of them are:
- Being able to disconnect from social media, news, daily problems and day-to-day craziness
- Letting your mind and body rest
- Learning more about yourself
- Working on the things that you were neglecting of postponing
- Being able to rest and recharge
The disadvanatges of taking longer amount of time off is it is hard to go back on track and have your regular habits. I have to rebuild some of my habits. But taking this time for self-care helped to understand what I want and don’t want to have in my life and how I see my lifestyle.
Of course, taking a day off will not have the same impact and going back to your normal life will be easier.
What now?
Right now I am trying to go back to my so-called normal life and I am working on my lifestyle and habits. It is a bit hard after three weeks of doing barely anything but I feel inspired and motivated despite the current state of the world. It helped that by the end of the third week, I started feeling better and more hopeful.
Honestly, spending time doing what I love like writing, coloring, creating, doing Tarot and oracle spreads, spending time with my husband and outside helped me to go back to life and calm down a bit. I got myself a notebook for my new ideas and I feel like there are so many opportunities and if not now then when?
I definitely feel recharged and more hopeful, and try to focus on the things I can control and influence myself here right now.
But generally, I think it’s a good idea to take at least a day off to completely disconnect from everything and focus on yourself, self-care and your needs.
Photo by Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash