If You’re Beat Up, Don’t Give Up. Rest Up. Then Get Up.

“If you’re beat up, don’t give up. Rest up. Then get up.”  -Tristan Bishop

I’ve never been one to accept that there are limits on what we are capable of doing. I have always been one to attempt to do more, to go beyond, to push through, and to at the very least try to make things happen. And being that way has always served me well.  Until the last week when I caught a cold, and instead of allowing my body to rest like I should have I tried to get just a little extra sleep and then I made myself get up and still attend all the events I had previously committed to attend…which turned out to be a huge mistake on my part because pushing my body that way landed me right back in bed Friday night with far worse than my cold, I had come down with the flu and that has completely wiped me out this weekend.

I hate being down and I hate giving in to needing rest. Just the thought of taking time to rest up makes me start worrying about all the things that I need to get done that I won’t get done if I do rest, which only makes me feel worse than I am already feeling. Oh, and did I mention the guilt? The guilt part is probably tied to the fact I am a woman and we tend to feel guilty at the mere thought of taking care of ourselves when there are others out there needing us to take care of them.

I really thought I could push myself to do the mind over matter thing last Friday afternoon when I got myself out of bed to get ready for a meeting.  A few hours into that meeting I realized I had pushed my body too far and I ended up having to come home early to climb back into bed…and I literally haven’t moved from my bed since then…I finally had to force myself to accept the fact that resting up doesn’t mean giving up.

In my case I needed to allow my body time to rest so it could heal. And the more I avoided allowing myself to get that rest the more ill I became…until finally I was forced to rest up (which I do not recommend…ugh..).  Perhaps in your case it is your body, or your heart, or your mind, or your soul that needs to rest up so it can heal – and perhaps, like me, you are fighting that rest and telling yourself you can push through it on your own. Well learn from my mistake – don’t wait until things get so bad you are forced into the rest you need – recognize that it is not you giving up by needing to rest up, it’s not you being weak to seek out help, it’s not you failing by admitting that you need to let go. It’s you being strong enough to recognize that you need to rest up if you are ever to be able to get up and do all that you are meant to do with your life.

Rest up. Then get up. Going forward at your strongest, because you are going to need that strength to accomplish all of the amazing things you are meant to do  🙂

~Amy Rees Anderson

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