Healing Day

My energy's been slowly draining down all week. Something's been off. It felt a little like last year's staph infection. Yesterday, co-workers were telling me to go home and go to bed. Still not sure why things were off kilter, but after a protein-rich dinner and a restful sleep (OK — a glass of whiskey and a restful sleep), I'm on the upswing again today.

To be on the safe side, I took a day off work to get some extra rest and TLC for my body, because I would rather live one quiet day so I can live a bunch of rip-roaring loud days after that, than live all those next few days half-baked.

Question: Why do we call them "sick days" and not "healing days"?

On a sick day, you're supposed to be sick. Too sick to do anything but be sick. It is supposed to be black or white, on or off. Sick or well. "If you're not sick enough to stay in bed, you're not too sick to go to school!"

What would a healing day look like? For me, today, it looks like quiet rest, no soul-draining TV, sleep, a long stretching session, and some moist heat.

It helps a lot that I don't have deadlines today and am not letting teammates down by staying home and letting my body recover from whatever was going on. I don't know I could take the same kind of day if I were an ER nurse or a grade school teacher. It helps that whatever was going on is not, as far as I know, a chronic or otherwise serious condition.

But since I have the opportunity to do so, thinking of it as a "healing day" has kept a focus on choices that promote better functioning. Sick is something you are. Healing is something you are doing. Seems like the shift in mindset might affect other choices in thought and action.

We'll see if it holds up. Next time I have a puking flu, we'll see if I can manage to think, "I'm healing," instead of "I'm sick," and how it affects the quality of that day.