Meet Kate:
Kate jerked from her sleep, turned towards the wall clock and jumped out of the bed, it was 7:30am and she was late. She ran into the shower and in few minutes she was out. Kate ran her hand through the many clothing on her wardrobe and pulled out a black jump suit that was hid in the middle of many clothes clamped together. She quickly wore it and used the towel to dab the pony tail of her weave-on held together by a band. She had mistakenly wet her hair while bathing in a rush. She looked in the mirror to apply some lip gloss and suddenly, her face folded into a frown.
Again, she had eye bags and her dark circles were very obvious. Kate hadn’t had adequate sleep for a while. The pharmacy was always busy and she worked as the only accountant. Every day, she returned from work by 10pm. On some days when work was overwhelming, Kate had to conclude accounts at home to be sure there was no oversight.
She had slept with a headache last night and in the rush of going to work, Kate didn’t pay attention to the way her body was responding. She finished up and hit the road by 7:55am. It was a 35 minutes commute but due to the high traffic jam, Kate arrived work in 45 minutes. As she walked in greeting the girl over the counter, Kate felt a sudden black out and that is all she remembered.
On waking up, she found out she was laying on the pharmacy bed. While talking to the pharmacist on what happened, he told her she needed adequate rest. Kate was later given some days off work to recuperate, but then she wondered if she was going to be back to continue same routine…
Like Kate, sometimes we get so overwhelmed with work and making ends meet that we forget to pay attention to our bodies. The average recommended hour for sleep is 7-8 hours but not so many take to this prescription because we are all in a race to make wealth.
However, wealth may not be attained if health is not a priority. This is no encouragement to laziness or complacency but a call to make health priority.
Rest and Relaxation are vital in repairing muscle tissues and triggers the release of hormones that affect growth and appetite. Also, a good amount of sleep is essential to your ability to learn and process memories.
In her book “Look Great, Feel Great”, Joyce Meyer projects the need for adequate care for our bodies and in an interview with CBN, Joyce says:
“…We do not value the body God has given us. When you get a new car or a new couch, you do everything possible to make sure it stays clean and looking new. But we don’t have this same mindset with our bodies. I really hope that this book will help people realize that taking care of themselves is important—not only for their health and long-life, but also as a good example to others”.
She further said when asked why many Christians were born again yet still struggling with their health:
“I struggled with my health for a long time. Because of my abusive background, I tried to find value in my accomplishments and was always adding more responsibilities to my life. The more responsibilities I had, the more stressed out I became. I suffered from severe migraines, which I later learned were a result of tense muscles in my neck due to stress. Obviously, there are some very severe illnesses, but I believe that we can overcome certain ones by doing simple things like eating right, getting enough sleep, drinking enough water, and exercising”.
These stories are to highlight the fact that we can neither replace pain with more work or overwork our bodies and expect it to function perfectly well. While we may not see the result of straining our bodies in our early days as young people, it tells in old age.
Rest adequately and gather more momentum for productive work.
In the words of Jeff Bezos,
“If you shortchange your sleep, you might get a couple of extra ‘productive’ hours, but that productivity might be an illusion.”
Sources:
CBN
CNBC
Mental Health America
#WellnessWednesday
#ChurchGist
