Now’s the Perfect Time to Take a Mental Health Day
Are you exhausted? I’m exhausted. From the past week, the past year, the past four years. And also from the past 48 hours — in a different way, a much better way, but exhausted nonetheless.
It’s kind of strange, remembering what it’s like to feel not-terrible. This weekend, surrounded by celebrations in the streets of D.C., I kept imagining a piece of dusty machinery sputtering to life after years of disuse: our capacities for hope and happiness, cobwebs falling off the gears. Today, I’ve been imagining all the energy it takes to get a lifeless machine up and running again, to power something from off to on.
Take a day off, if you can. Let yourself rest.
That means something different now than it did before the election was called. Last week, the slack we cut ourselves was about survival — we did what we could to make the week bearable, and no more. It was about conserving a finite and rapidly dwindling supply of energy.
Now, on the other side, the slack you cut yourself can be about recuperating. It’s about regenerating energy. Take a day to do nothing except feel better than you once did. For the first time in a while, it’s a truly restorative rest.
