Well hello there Fierce One,
As weeks go, this week has NOT been my favourite. I woke up early Monday morning with a brutal headache/fever and did battle with a cold all week.
At first I thought I’d take Monday morning off. As my cold worsened, I stretched that to resting for most of the week, and doing only the activities that felt absolutely necessary, including but not limited to:
- brooding,
- drinking hot lemon and honey,
- watching a SILLY number of Downton Abbey episodes,
- Wishing Violet Crawley could be my personal mentor
- powering through half of The Zookeeper’s Wife, and brooding.
Did I mention the brooding?
Here’s what often happens to me when I get sick: I get sad and low.
I grow susceptible to self-pity, negative thoughts, comparisonitis and hopelessness.
This doesn’t happen every time I get sick, but it does happen.
Thankfully, my coaching training kicked in at a couple of key moments throughout the week when I reminded myself to breathe and take it one hour at a time.
And then I spoke to two women who had also been sick, and were also feeling sad and low, just like I was.
We laughed about it, and someone sent me a hilarious meme.
Knowing that there were other women who also get sad and low sometimes when they get sick made me feel better. Not in a “misery loves company” sort of way, but in a kindred spirit sort of way.
So I decided to write you this letter to tell you that if you’re feeling sick and tired, or just sick, or simply tired, that’s OK.
You have permission to lay down the mantle of positivity for a couple of days now and then.
You can absolutely permit the height of your productivity to be read and re-read articles about Justin Timberlake’s mediocre Superbowl performance because you grew up knowing all the words to Nasty and you LOVED Janet Jackson and you will never forget how he forsook her.
You’re not a bad person for making your kids order their lunch five days in a row because you just don’t have the energy to make sandwiches this week.
Badass women get sick and sad from time to time and the world doesn’t end.
So if you need to rest, rest. If you want to be sad, be sad. If you want to brood, brood.
Take a day, or maybe a week. Sleep, eat, read, escape. Laugh about it with strong women you trust.
And then get back to work.