I was recently in China for an admin trip. Having not been there for 6 years, there was a lot to catch up on. It was an intense 10 day trip where I tried to fit everything in, from sorting out phone to bank affairs, paying homage at ancestor shrines and temples to catching up with relatives. It was non-stop from dawn to dusk.
When I got back to the UK, I started getting a little tickly cough. It was one of those coughs that I just couldn’t seem to clear. It just kept tickling away no matter what I tried. It started getting worse to the point where the tickle was making me gag, which made me nauseous, which made me even worse. It was pretty awful.
My days morphed into a pattern of sleep, eat, and repeat, forcing me to retreat from the world and all my commitments.
Life was pretty miserable and I can see how people can get into a rut. I’m normally an optimistic person but all I was feeling was doom and gloom. In the end, it took a batch of antibiotics to clear things up. It didn’t quite last 100 days but they say that’s the average for this type of cough.
By cancelling everything…
And when I started to feel a bit better, I suddenly felt space and a bit of a vacuum. I didn’t know what to do with myself. Normally, my life is pretty full and it felt strange not knowing what to do next. This lasted a couple of days and involved conflicting emotions; guilt for not doing anything, mingled with fatigue and a foggy attention span, surrounded by a sense of apathy.
As my health returned slowly, I found myself regaining a zest for life. I started doing simple things like making a simple Instagram chocolate fudge recipe, I ordered some photos I’ve been meaning to, I started clearing up the lounge. Small small things but somehow very satisfying.
Remember how many of us felt like the Covid lockdowns provided a bit of a reset? How we cancelled everything in our lives and only reintroduced things that were important to us. This nasty cough felt like that. It provided a bit of a reset.
It also reminded me that our health is so important, so without going through such an ordeal, look at your calendar and think what you really want there. Is this how you want to be spending your time? If anything prompts hesitation or a definite “No”, consider this moment for change.