Dear Patient,
Remember what it was like to take a sick day? Back when you could truly disconnect? You’d watch some bad daytime television, drift in and out of sleep, eat some soup and crackers. That’s it. Everything happening in the world beyond your bed was of no concern to you. Whenever you felt better, someone from work or school would catch you up on whatever you’d missed.
Nowadays there’s no disconnecting when you’re sick. If you ignore the emails and messages from coworkers or classmates, you’ll lie in fear of the gigantic pile steadily accumulating as you convalesce. Even if you resist the urge to check your inbox, you’re probably still online, checking the news, scrolling through friends’ photos on social media, catching up on all those articles you’ve been meaning to read. You’re still engaged in the world. Are you really getting the rest you need?
And the popular “mental health day” doesn’t look much different. How can you give yourself a true mental health break when you know that what awaits you on the other side is just more stuff to catch up on?
Maybe instead, we stop trying to keep track of so much to begin with. Let go of the need to constantly be in the know. Get fewer news alerts. Delete a social media account or two. Consume less content and open up some breathing room.
Then, when you need a break, you can truly step away, knowing that the world will continue to spin without you, accepting that you might miss a notification or two. Things will happen and you won’t know about them or be able to like or comment or share. And that is okay. Because healing and rest are more important.
Love and gratitude,
Your Acupuncturist
P.S. Today’s Note was inspired by Pamela Paul’s beautiful essay collection 100 Things We’ve Lost to the Internet. I highly recommend it as an antidote to our hyperconnected, overstimulated times.
Love, love, love this!