sick day & no guilt

I am at home sick today. Early this week, I noticed my energy level was at an all time low, and I felt very sleepy. I did take it pretty easy and tried not to push myself too hard, but by Wednesday night I could tell I had a cold. Yesterday I was stuffed up and tired but still felt well enough to go to work. Last night I went to bed at 7:00 p.m. and early this morning I could tell I definitely needed to rest some more, so I took a sick day from work. I pretty much slept all morning. I just got out of the shower. I do find when I'm sick with a cold, after I sleep for a long period of time, if I shower and put on a little make-up, I do feel a bit better.

There was a time in my life when I felt guilty about staying home from work when I was sick. This mind-set has changed primarily due to an incident a few years ago. At that time, I knew I had a bad cold and continued to go to work (because the world cannot go on without me in it, right?) only to have that cold turn into walking pneumonia--which forced me to be in bed and miserable for an entire week--there was no way I could work with pneumonia. If I had rested when the cold initially started, I do not think I would have gotten pnemonia. It's interesting how if we do not listen to what our body is telling us, it will eventually force us to listen. Now when I am feeling sick, I rest and don't feel a bit guilty about it.

Guilt is an interesting, and most of the times worthless, needless feeling. In Sanskrit, the language of yoga, there isn't a word for guilt. The concept simply doesn't exist. I have tried to embrace the idea of living my life guilt-free (as I've mentioned in an earlier post, I'm still working on saying no and not feeling a tad bit guilty). It's a very freeing feeling to know that as long as we live our truth and are compassionate with ourselves and others, there is not one reason we should need to feel guilty. And, even if we aren't always living our truth or being as compassionate as we can, we still don't need to feel guilty about it or beat ourselves up about it, we just need to step up and make changes for the better.

As Maya Angelou states, "We do what we know. When we know better, we do better."

Have a guilt-free, happy, healthy weekend!

Namaste'

Yogadiva