Over the past two years, the collective trauma we all have endured has made finding time for yourself and processing the toll all the more difficult. I was at an awards ceremony the other night, and one of the speakers very poignantly stated, “When you are pouring from a half-empty glass, you are going to get half-empty results.”
I have found myself sitting on this truth for the past few days. How full is my glass? What does a full glass even look like to me? I think college especially is a very formative period of time in terms of boundary setting. Many people our age had this pivotal period of self-discovery and development cut short and were forced back into limiting spaces we have outgrown. For me, this blurred the lines between how I regulate my emotions and has led to severe burnout.
Over winter break, I looked at my schedule for this semester and was horrified. Why had I not said no to more? When was I going to have time to rest? When was I going to be able to hang out with my friends in our last semester of college?
The beginning of the semester started off rough. I missed multiple quizzes and found myself falling behind in roles I had once been passionate about. I was so desperately trying to balance interning, work, school and extracurriculars that I was struggling to get out of bed. It was easier to do nothing than to try miserably and fail. One night I was ragging on myself for not getting everything done and my roommate simply looked at me and said, “Rest is productive.”
I think this mentality of productive rest shows the importance of self-compassion in not only times of burnout but hopefully in avoiding burnout altogether. As soon as I realized that I was not spending any intentional time alone with myself, I was able to start regulating my habits and perceptions of productivity.
This week has arguably been the best I have felt in a while because I am allowing myself to feel the toll these past two years have taken while actively working to give myself grace. We are still by no means back to “normal,” and I do not think we should go back to a time of lacking social responsibility and boundaries.
I think we could all do ourselves some good by recognizing how difficult this time has been. When I step outside of the state of the world and reflect on my own life, I want to be able to say I did the best I could. To me, this is defined as spending time doing things I enjoy, being socially responsible with the media I engage with, and being kind to myself and others. Each of these actions aids in our collective ability to care for one another.
Show yourself the love you give others, collegiette.