This post is also available in: Español (Spanish)
Every situation we go through in life is an opportunity to learn. That’s the reason I always have something to write about. I’ve learned to see everything that happens for (note: ‘for,’ not ‘to’) me as valuable life lessons. Changing that one little word really makes a difference in the way I receive what God sends my way as lessons and opportunities. I love sharing my stories here with the hope that maybe some of you can see the lessons behind the situations with your own perspective and they may help you in some way.
On January 4th 2021, the first Monday of this wonderful year, I woke up really happy. I was excited to go to my new office and see the furniture that was coming in that day. It was a great day. We had lots of productive meetings, and everyone was happy to see the office coming along, even though a little construction was still going on. I was supposed to leave at 3pm, but I decided to stay a little longer to finish a few things.
When I finally said goodbye to everyone, I headed to the stairs at the back. Since we decided to build storage just beside, the stairs were darker than usual. I didn’t know about the switch to turn the lights on, so I started going down, trusting my cat vision. As you might have guessed already, my cat vision sucks. On the third step, I fell down. I partially missed the step, so my left foot completely bent to the right side. It probably looked silly, but it hurt pretty badly. I was able to hold myself, so I didn’t keep falling, but I stayed in the same position where I landed for few minutes.
While there, I thought, “This hurts so much that I really want to cry.” But I replied to myself (yep, I do talk to myself like that), “Come on, Irene, crying won’t solve any of this. Get up and move.” Since I was closer to the top, I decided to go back into the office. I told everyone what happened, and they immediately jumped up to try to help me. I was walking funny because my ankle was in so much pain, but I told them I was okay to drive back home.
To make this next part of the story short, my mom took me to the doctor because the pain and the swelling were a little out of control. After the doctor checked everything, she told me I had a sprain, prescribed some medicine, and said that I needed to rest.
If you have been following me for a while, you may know that the word ‘rest’ is not in my vocabulary—I’m always going at 150 miles per minute. But I took the advice, and the next day I stayed home. I promise you, I did great with my resting time. I still worked of course, but for the first time in more than a year, I didn’t work out that day. I was doing great until late in the afternoon, when my mind took a downward turn. I started feeling really sad and disappointed in myself for falling down in such a silly way. I even went into brutal mode. I felt horrible for destroying everything I’ve worked so hard to get for the past year with my fitness. I was sad, but the worst part was that I was being so mean to myself that I didn’t allow myself to let the feelings out. I held in my tears because, according to me at that moment, crying was for the weak, and I was supposed to be strong. Thank goodness I eventually snapped out of it let my tears go. I cried like a little baby, and it felt good.
I let all my feelings completely out and I started being kind to myself. I looked at my ankle and noticed that I was able to move it a tiny bit, which was a great improvement from the night before. Then I decided to try to find the good inside the bad in my situation. I talked to God, and He helped me understand that He sent me this situation as an answer to my own internal pleas for a chance to slow down. God knew I was not going to slow down on my own because, well, I’m stubborn like that. So He sent me a way to force me to do it. I really needed that. When I say ‘slow down,’ I mean give my mind and body some resting time to recover from all the work I force them to do every single day, nonstop.
Rest is necessary in all aspects of our lives. We need to recover from always going so fast. It’s a cycle: we give our best, we recover, and then we can give our best again. I was under the wrong impression that I wasn’t supposed to stop at all because then I might lose everything I had accomplished. It turns out resting doesn’t mean I need to stay in bed for a week (I’m not judging here, though. If that’s what you need, go for it.) Resting means I need to slow down a little to let my mind and body recover. The same way I make the time to meditate and give my mind time to get energized every day, I need to let my body recover as well.
This concept applies to everything, as I said before. We need to make time to recover from everything we go through. We need to disconnect from the nonstop around us, if only for a moment, so we can fuel our souls with the energy they need in order to keep going. Don’t do what I did. Don’t wait until you require a more extreme way to make you realize this necessity. If you’re a high achiever, you will always be! And actually, you’ll achieve even more if you allow yourself to recover the proper way.
Love,
Irene
