This week I’m having an opportunity to listen to my body and and to stop worrying about what other people think.
For the last two days, around noon time I’ve started feeling extremely dizzy. As in “I think I might fall off my chair” dizzy. I’m able to walk around and drive, but I’m much MUCH happier laying down.
Around 1 p.m. yesterday, I left the office to work from home for the afternoon. All evening I felt weird, but because I was lying down, I was okay. This morning I got up and still felt weird, but passable enough to go back to work. And then around 11:30, the dizziness hit again.
Again, I left work and headed for my couch.
As I may have mentioned before, I am the only female in a newsroom filled with men. I know that they respect me and take great care of me, so most of the time it’s totally fine. But in moments like this I start to worry a bit – are they going to think that I’m just a weak female? They all come to work while they’re sick. Some of them are the strong stoic type; some of them are the “I’m going to complain but do it anyway” type. In the midst of that, it can be a little difficult for me to show what I think might be perceived as weakness.
But I also know my body. If I don’t take the time to take care of myself RIGHT NOW, a week from now I’ll be really sick. I can take one day off this week, or I can take ten days off starting next week. It’s just the way my body works.
I’ve decided that if I don’t wake up tomorrow morning feeling absolutely stellar, I’m going to call in sick and stay on the couch for the day. There’s only so far I can fall off the couch if the noontime dizzies hit. 🙂
And I’m going to have a talk with those voices in my head that are afraid that the “big boys” will think less of me. Because the truth is that I do a damn good job at the newspaper and my co-workers DO respect me. And I’m pretty sure that they know I don’t complain without cause. But even if they were to think that I’m weak for taking care of my body, that’s their deal. My deal is to take care of myself so I can keep doing a damn good job next week.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to bed.
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Image found here.
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