Knowing When To Rest

(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...