I can breathe today. Which is a massive improvement over yesterday, FYI. I know writing about being sick on your blog is akin to writing about the amazing turkey sandwich you had for lunch, but I cannot seem to get around it. I’m sneezing every 48 seconds, and every time that happens I forget what I was doing. It’s a real problem when it happens in the bathroom, just so you know.
This also marks the THIRD time I’ve picked up some kind of virus in 2010 alone. For someone who has never had a legitimate sick day in her life, that’s wrong. I don’t get sick. But apparently being home and out of a disgusting office with ancient air circulating is good for everyone but me. I’m lucky that way.
Yesterday, before I felt really bad, I went to yoga. I thought maybe 90 minutes of hot, humid air would clear my head so that I could think again, so that I could do things that normal people do. At the beginning of class, the instructor generally shares something that is meant to help us with our intention during class. Yesterday, he suggested we appreciate our mental strength more than our physical strength, knowing that without that mental strength the physical would mean very little.
It makes sense, of course. Mental health is irreplaceable, and it’s the reason I could be there at all. Even with my head stuffed, feeling like it weighed 90 pounds, I could appreciate that. And sitting here now, I’m reminded that that mental health was the reason I made the choice I did to leave that dirty, germ-filled office. It wasn’t the germs that chased me out, of course, and obviously they’re still finding me, but it’s a good reminder that no matter what I face now, it is independent of the environment that was so bad for me.
Not a day goes by that I don’t think I left my old job at exactly the right time, at the very last moment that I could have. I knew my mental health was suffering and sticking it out was no longer an option. Not once have I looked back and thought I should have (or could have) stuck it out longer. This I know for sure.
If I had a few dollars for every time someone has told me how much better, happier, or healthier I look or act since I quit my job, I’d never have to work again. And they’re right, I am better. I am happier. And, mostly, I am healthier.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Here’s three dollars! You look and act so much better, happier and healthier.
Despite the fact that the microbes have followed you home from the office, you were right to leave.
First of all, I hope you start to feel better soon! Secondly, I think we ALL write about being sick on our blogs, despite the fact that we know everyone has a thing against it. Whatever, it’s YOUR blog!
never underestimate the care that we need to take of our mental health! i think it’s so important.
and i, like you, have been sneezing non-stop for three days now. im all stuffy and not feeling at all swell. hope you’re better soon!
Mental health… key!! Sometiems I think we are less healthy when our minds and spirit are tired or not well than we are when we are physically sick? Does that make sense? SUch is life…
Find a way of laughing and hurrah for mental health!!
When I came back to visit my old coworkers after travelling for 3 months, they all kept telling me how much healthier I looked. Just like you, it was all about being mentally healthy. Now if I could just get through this last week of classes and finals – I need the mental health break known as spring break!
And if you were at work still, you’d be BOTH kinds of sick. Or in the mental institution. You totally win.
Yay for mental health!
And, yay for happier!!
Both are all kinds of good.
A million times over, congratulations for taking the reins and getting yourself to a place of happiness and (mostly
) healthiness. This stuffy nose, too, shall pass.