Knowing When To Rest
When illness or exhaustion hits, we tend to be hard on ourselves for not feeling well. Eve talks about taking time to heal when you need it.
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(air whooshing) (gentle music) Headspace Studios. (gentle music) Hello, friends. It's Eve here with you. Welcome to Radio Headspace and to Monday. So I caught COVID a few weeks ago and I got it pretty badly. I managed to go two and a half years without getting it. I've had all the vaccines, the booster, but it finally got me. I had to surrender to the fact that I was pretty sick, and I had to rest. That meant stopping everything, no work, no chores, nada. And boy did it feel uncomfortable. But I'm so glad I listened to what my body needed. And I bring this up because I think, generally speaking, we're not very good at resting, especially when we're sick. It's almost as if we pitch ourselves against ourselves and that we are failing if we don't continue to work. Now, of course, there are many reasons for this. Folks may not feel safe taking sick days. There might be a fear of losing their jobs or that it will be frowned upon. And there's not really an easy fix for this. A lot of these issues are deeply embedded in our working culture. But I think what is helpful to remember is that we may all get sick at some point in our lives, and we're all going to need support to heal and to get better. So we might not be able to change our approach to sick days overnight, but we can focus on cultivating empathy and compassion. We are all part of a shared human experience, and it can be helpful to remind ourselves, when we see that someone needs time to rest and heal, that one day we, too, might need that same help. And we can flex our empathy and compassion muscles as we go about our daily lives. It doesn't have to be reserved just for the bigger challenges in life. And a great way to do this is by strengthening our attention and listening to folks, not just what they say, but how they look, their mood, and what they might not be saying. We're all probably quite guilty of saying, "Yeah, I'm fine," when someone asks, "How are you?" It's almost a default setting sometimes. But when we start to pay attention in more detail and notice how someone is, we can often see that they may need a little support or help. Of course, we don't want to push and pry or force folks into telling us what is going on, but a simple, "I noticed that you seemed a little down. Is there anything I can do to help? Please let me know if you feel comfortable sharing," can really go a long way. (gentle music) Practicing meditation and mindfulness helps to lay the foundations for empathy and compassion to arise. Empathy is to feel with, to put yourself in someone else's shoes. And compassion is to suffer with. And when we train in awareness, we...
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About your teachers
- More about Andy
A former Buddhist monk, Andy has guided people in meditation and mindfulness for 20 years. In his mission to make these practices accessible to all, he co-created the Headspace app in 2010.
- More about Eve
Eve is a mindfulness teacher, overseeing Headspace’s meditation curriculum. She is passionate about sharing meditation to help others feel less stressed and experience more compassion in their lives.
- More about Dora
As a meditation teacher, Dora encourages others to live, breathe, and be with the fullness of their experiences. She loves meditation’s power to create community and bring clarity to people’s minds.
- More about Kessonga
Kessonga has been an acupuncturists, therapist, and meditation teacher, working to bring mindfulness to the diverse populations of the world.
- More about Rosie
Rosie Acosta has studied yoga and mindfulness for more than 20 years and taught for over a decade. Rosie’s mission is to help others overcome adversity and experience radical love.
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