How to rest
Saturday morning of a long weekend and there is plenty of time for that for now. You play that trick: if Monday is a holiday, then today is really Friday, and if today is Friday, then the weekend hasn't even started yet! Three full days, an almost embarrassing reward. The unfulfilled messages will be overcome. You spend time with your family And your friends, get started on an ambitious cooking project and finally tackle that creaking cupboard door. Want to see a film in a real cinema? Want to read an entire book from start to finish? Yes and yes! At this point, it's all possible.
Of course it's still early. Maybe for now you can stay here under the covers and think. When faced with the limitless possibility of a long weekend, there's nothing more perversely tempting than staying put or going back to bed. All the while to fill gloriously and productively; why not waste a little? It's not really 'waste', right? It's self-care, it's freedom of choice, as a sleep psychologist told The Times. If this time is truly and truly yours, then it is yours to spend or waste as you please.
Last year, an unfortunately named trend emerged from the dark cauldron of TikTok: bed rot. “Rotting” means spending the day under the covers, scrolling on your phone, taking a nap, bingeing a show, staring at the ceiling. Some doctors praised the practice as a necessary form of rest; Others warned it could indicate depression. Recently, the more Seussian-sounding idea of the 'hurkle-durkle,A 19th-century Scottish term for staying in bed when you should be out and about has risen in popularity.
Both practices are concerned with defying worldly concerns, with the tension between being a responsible member of society and snuggling under layers of blankets. This is a grim continuum on which we can exist, skating between the poles of high-achieving hustlers and dissolute good-for-nothings. Even as successive generations use social media to grapple with this tension in real time, even now one intensified by the pandemic thinking about burnout And work life balance suggests that a holistic embrace of deep relaxation without guilt might be possible, our preference for getting things done rather than socializing remains. We love checking things off lists, we disdain any behavior with a hint of laziness.