This month for our special edition of Mental Health we hand over our Media Naranja column—which focuses on love, in all its forms—to an initiative that has spent years creating a community passionate about breaking mental health stigmas in Costa Rica. The initiative is Vaso Lleno; its founder, Cris Gomar. On her social networks, she regularly shares messages of love and support for people facing various mental health challenges.
For today’s column, we share a message from Cris based on a Vaso Lleno post about the importance of resting. Read the original post here.
ENOUGH.
We need to stop thinking that resting is synonymous with laziness, irresponsibility, or wasting time.
Getting up late, spending a whole day on the couch watching TV, or dedicating hours to leisure does not make us less. Not in the least! It is urgent that you stop being embarrassed or feeling guilty for resting. It is urgent that we stop feeling bad for believing that we are “wasting time” for not being productive.
We need to reprogram ourselves and remind ourselves every day that resting is okay. It is healthy and even responsible to do so. It’s necessary! It doesn’t matter if we’ve spent the whole day working or doing university homework. It doesn’t matter if we’ve spent the whole day running errands, doing housework, or cooking. It doesn’t matter if there is no apparent reason to rest. If the body or the mind asks for it, let’s do it. Let’s rest, and let’s enjoy it. Let’s stop feeling bad about doing something that everyone in the world needs.
Let’s rest more. That’s an order.
