48. Rest, simplicity, and living your values

This week is a super short episode as I am recovering from pneumonia! Back to my usual shenanigans next week :)

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Transcript

Hello. Hello, Hello. It's me. I'm here. You may have noticed, if you're somebody who listens every week, you may have noticed that I did not release a podcast episode last week, which I felt very weird about and struggled with. But here's the thing, I have pneumonia. I actually like the A few weeks ago, my episode, I mentioned that I wasn't feeling well. I had this cough, blah, blah, blah. It just really escalated, and I was really, really sick. I'm still sick, but at least I've gone through a round of antibiotics and all that kind of stuff. So I'm on the mend, but I am still not well. The hardest part is, like, very, very extreme fatigue. And I have, like, my brain is really foggy, like, I feel like it's like, it takes a lot of energy to think, which sounds very silly, but I don't, honestly have, I didn't have, like, a big topic for this week or anything, but I didn't want to miss another week, so I figured I would just have a quick little episode here to share a couple thoughts that have come up, namely the importance of rest. And I think this is something that a lot of us really struggle with as ADHD ers as neurodivergent people. Rest is not something that I think comes naturally to a lot of us, and it feels almost like indulgent we don't have the ability to for some of us, it can feel indulgent, and I think it's almost like a thing of not knowing how to rest. I find that's my struggle, especially if you are a combined type like me and have a lot of internal hyperactivity, like I can't turn my brain off. And so even when it might appear that you're resting, you're not really resting right, because you can't rest your brain and so but I know like when I first was diagnosed with this, and my nurse practitioner said when I was diagnosed with pneumonia, not with ADHD, but she said that I have to rest and resist the urge to not rest, which I think is a common struggle, especially for moms, but it was, yeah, rest and liquids, like lots of water. And I really have found that it's hard not to think, Okay, well, I really have so many things to do, I might as well just get things done. I might as well see if I can do it. But like she did, also warn me that it's very easy to relapse from, you know, trying to do too much too soon, and then you just kind of fall back to where you were. So I am trying to take it easy, but it's not easy to take it easy. So I yeah, I guess I stress the importance of rest, but I also am not really sure how to do it. I actually have somebody in mind. I don't want to say her name, in case she was like, you know, not be interested, but I'm going to reach out to her and see if she would be willing to come on the podcast, because she talks about rest for women with ADHD, or for individuals, I believe, with ADHD. And so I would love, love, love to talk to her about this, because I think it's so easy to think like, oh, not applicable. Rest is not applicable. I don't need to worry about that. Yes, you do. And so I'm learning that lesson kind of the hard way. But another thing that's come up for me, and I, and I talked about this on my Instagram, but like, oftentimes when I am sick, you know, when you get in that stage where you're like, I can't even remember what it feels like to feel normal. I don't think I'm ever gonna feel normal again or like, my regular self, and I'm forever gonna be like this. I had lots of time like that, and I realized this time that, like, anytime I get sick like that, I always have the same thought of, like, I just want my simple, basic. Life back. Like, I don't even want any of the frills or all this other excess stuff. Like, I just want the basics of life, like fruits and vegetables. Like, for me, I love to cook so and bake and stuff like that, right? So I'm like, I just want to be in my kitchen, and I just want to, you know, drink coffee and bake things and make food from scratch only because I love to do it, not because that's something that you should do. And like, you know what I mean, but like, it just really, really, you know, illuminated and kind of made me recognize that, like simplifying my life is, is I've just been longing for it for a long time, and that's what I'm going to be doing. And I think that's going to lead to a lot of changes for me in a lot of other areas, like, even as it relates to the work that I do, like, I've been kind of phasing out. We can talk about this in a later episode, but I have not been doing a lot of coaching, and I think I really want to kind of put that on the shelf for now, put it on pause, so that I can really focus on myself. But I have no intentions of like abandoning this. I'm actually gonna keep up with the podcast, of course, but also start a YouTube channel, but I really want to just be in it. I really want to be in it and learning and researching, but like, focus on myself and focus on my own weight loss and, you know, improving my health and continuing to learn about all these things alongside everybody, and less focus on feeling like I need to be like an authority on any of this stuff, but I'm never gonna stop wanting to, you know, learn about things. It's just my nature. I'm very curious. Learning is like a big value for me, and so I think that's why I love doing this. But, yeah, just really simplifying my life, focusing inward and not feeling bad about that, because if I'm trying to do all these things and I'm doing nothing, you know, and I really have to focus on the simple, basic, straightforward priority in my life, which is my health, because that's another thing that really kind of came to light for me, is that it's tough when you can't do things, and you have people relying on you and and then I looked into the like it made me think about the future. I didn't look into the future. I don't have that kind of ability. I just imagine the future. And like, my lung, obviously, pneumonia is a lung thing, right? And so I don't have, like, my lungs are still in rough shape. I don't have a lot of lung capacity. And like, going upstairs to my kids room to, like, help my daughter get ready for bed, or something like that. Like, just took the life out of me. Like, going up the stairs was really hard, and I was like, Man, if I don't take care of my health, like, what happens to me years from now? Like, I don't want to be in a position where, you know, I can't do the things that I want to do because I didn't take care of my health when I could. So, yeah, I mean, I just, I know this has really helped me to see where my focus should be and what's really important. So I don't think anything for other people, like nothing on the podcast is going to change, except that, like I'm going to keep I feel a little bit more, like, inclined to have more guests on and talk to people, and which I've always wanted to do, but I'm less I'm putting a lot less pressure on myself to, you know, be some authority on things, even though I do know a lot because, because I've done a lot of research, because I love it, and I am educated in this stuff, but I Do just really want to expand and keep, keep learning about this. But also, yeah, focus those focus where I need to focus and yeah, like I was trying to say, I don't think, like for anybody else on the outside looking in, that that's really going to change much, except that dropping that pressure on myself, you know, kind of, I feel like that's almost expansive in a way, like I'm not gonna feel so, like I'm policing myself in what I, you know, do, because I worry that, like, Oh no, if I share too much of my own story, then people won't, you know, listen to me because I'm still overweight. I don't know I'm just, I just don't want to care about that anymore. I just want to be fully immersed in this, you know, being on my own journey and sharing that with everybody and helping other people to learn everything that I'm learning. Yeah? So anyhow, I, yeah, I don't, I don't really have anything specific. For this week. Other than that, like, rest is important, simplicity and the things that really matter is important, and just living by your values as they like, line up with what you want for your life and for your future,

and that's all I really care about right now. So anyhow, I am hoping that I will feel better next week and have enough bandwidth, bringing capacity to start putting together more structured, proper episodes. I'm sure that I will. But for now, I am still I'm in bed. I actually, like, went out in public for the first time today in like, a long time, because I had to take my daughter somewhere. And that was weird. Actually. You know, what was tough about that is that this is my absolute favorite time of the year in camp, like where I live, it's just the leaves are falling and they're crunchy and it's crisp and sunny, but cold and like, I just love the weather, right? Like, I live for this time of year weather wise, and I've been stuck in bed. I haven't been able to go for my walks and everything. So that was like, okay, you know, I gotta do what I can to make myself well enough that I can enjoy this weather before it's gone. So anyhow, I hope you are enjoying this time of year, wherever you may be. I know it's not fall for everybody, but yes, and I will be back next week with a real, proper episode, and I'll talk to you then.