One day, for no reason that your head can fathom, it's suddenly different.

Things that didn't seem to work for weeks or months, suddenly do.

Your energy is better, your mood lighter and more positive.

Your ideas suddenly take flight and begin to gain momentum.

There is ALWAYS a pivot point - when the dark night flips into pre-dawn.

It happened to me this morning. I rose early after a terrible, disturbed, hot, mosquito and nightmare infested night. I should have felt awful.

There was a cool(ish) breeze blowing for the first time in months, and the horrible hot, smoky cloud enveloping Chiang Mai was visibly lifting with the dawn. I put on some Arjeet Kaur mantras and sat quietly with fresh moringa-green tea. I felt more creative than I have for months. I sat quietly and knitted half a baby hat for our refugee tuberculosis babies before 7am. By 10am I had completed 3 yucky BIG admin jobs at my desk that have defeated me for weeks.

So what changed?

Somewhere I just KNOW that all this deep resting is cumulative, despite "science" telling me I can't store up sleep benefits.

Perhaps there's more to be learned by examining the old, out-dated idea of someone having a "nervous breakdown". When I was a young woman in Australia, mentally-stressed, on-edge people would be pronounced as having a "nervous breakdown" and be taken off to a quiet and fairly isolated, calm place - for rest, restoring sleep patterns, good food and timeout. I remember the Grey Sisters near our home in Croydon, Victoria had a special "Rest Home for Exhausted Mothers."

It wasn't medical or pharmaceutical help they needed - just good old rest therapy, distance and TIME to process, consider, re-evaluate and rebalance.

The "prescription" for Recovery from "Nervous Breakdown" is fairly standard, and looks like this:

Back off from whatever is causing you too much stress. This doesn’t mean you have to quit your job if that is your stressor, but if something is causing your stress levels to climb, take a short break from it. Just one day away from work can help.

Get exercise and fresh air as stress builds. Exercise is a great stress reliever, and all it really takes is walking. Do whatever exercise you like, but do it outside if possible.

Talk to a close friend who is a good listener. When stress is getting to be too much, someone who is good at listening will allow you to vent and share your feelings.

Sit with a hot tea or coffee, not alcohol. A hot drink can be very soothing, but a lot of people are tempted to use alcohol to relax. This can backfire, so avoid alcohol or other substances when you’re feeling stressed.

Try meditation, slow breathing, or yoga. Relaxation techniques are easy once you learn how to do them. If you went through a treatment program after your breakdown, you probably were given some of these tools. Turn to them when you start to feel overwhelmed again. Even just five minutes of focusing on your breathing can take your stress levels down. Source.

It occurs to me that this Covid-19 lockdown time at home (3 weeks plus and currently in a 10 day 'no alcohol' ban enforced by martial law) has been the equivalent of 3 weeks in an old fashioned rest home for exhausted mothers. That I have been gifted and blessed. And it's working.

The resurgence of energy which pre-empts or flows with Chiang Mai's winds of change today is everything the Grey Sisters would have expected.

I am reflecting more deeply on the idea of Sabbath and Sabbatical - the complete down time that my modern, non-religiously-structured life hasn't allowed or planned or made time for.

Today I feel like planting seeds, creating, writing, working and cooking.

plants2411458_1920 1.jpg