I’m just getting over the flu. And yes, it is just as bad as people say it is. I don’t remember ever having the flu before, or being this sick, as a matter of fact.

I’ve spent 7 days in bed. That’s a long time to stress out about things I have no control over. I’ve been trying to figure out why I got the flu. Why me? Where did I catch it? How am I going to make up an entire week of my life? As you can imagine, or know from your own experiences, all of these thoughts are extremely anxiety provoking.

Yes, I have been torturing myself for an entire week. I’m sure the fever wasn’t helping me notice these toxic thoughts, but they didn’t just start the day I came down with the flu. I’ve been stressing over life for a while now. However, I think the flu, and its entire 7-day course has helped me realize that I needed to relax.

My body was saying “PLEASE! CAN YOU JUST PUT THE BRAKES ON AND CHILL OUT FOR ONE MINUTE?”

Until now, I kept saying “no”. Well, I was really just flat out ignoring it.

So my body replied with a vengeance and forced me to chill out, for an entire week. 

One thing I just noticed is how I was doing yoga every morning, but one day it was no longer relaxing or fun. It was a chore, and I really did not enjoy it. You guessed it. That started about 3 days before the flu hit! 

Sign? I think so!

I’m a big believer in listening to our bodies. I just was not practicing what I preach. It wasn’t that I couldn’t handle doing exercise every day. But I was forcing myself to exercise sometimes twice each day, and putting a huge stress on myself to start a new business, apply to grad school, keep hating my current situation at my job, lose weight, sleep-less, stress more, the list goes on and on. Although I thought I was pretty good at being mindful, clearly I needed to check in with myself better.

Sometimes our bodies force us to take a step back and reevaluate our lives. Is my job as bad as I was making it? No. Do I need to force myself to exercise too much? No. Do I need to stay in bed until the last moment and then be miserable most of the day? NO!

Life is what we make it. If I want a happy life, I can have a happy life. If I want a successful life, I can have a successful life. If I want to be miserable, you bet I’m going to be miserable.

So take a step back once in a while, and really think about all that you have. Don’t wait until your body shuts down to realize that you are being too hard on yourself and making yourself miserable for no good reason.