What to Do When Everything Stops Working—Including Yourself
My unintended "taper" because sometimes, the universe decides to hit the "pause" button for you. Rest: 1, Regina: 0 (And That’s Fine).
I had a plan. As a Type A girl, of course I had one.
Last week was supposed to look like this:
Rest or deload week before the Peak phase of my marathon training for the year
Catch up on work backlogs and finish October deliverables early
Race a half marathon on Sunday and try for a personal best
Do a couple rides on the indoor trainer
That was the expectation.
But here’s what actually happened:
Monday: My husband and I had had enough with our internet provider. After almost a month of intermittent connection with no real resolution, we headed over to the office of a different provider and applied for an account. It seemed like a promising start of the week.
Monday afternoon: AWS went down, and my workday followed suit. That time, I just decided that the universe wanted me to rest more, and I’ll gladly oblige. That same evening, my throat started to hurt. I could feel the beginnings of a flu. I loaded up on warm water and saline solution, and made myself some freshly-squeezed calamansi juice.
Tuesday to Wednesday: Enter a full-blown flu. Fever, chills, body aches—the whole thing. Today was the first day in a while that I wasn’t even able to turn on my laptop. The coughing fits also began, and I sounded like a broken engine. Also, the new internet was set up, so that was some good news!
Thursday: Felt slightly better in the morning, but our new internet was having issues. Plus, in the afternoon, fever threatened a comeback. At this point, I think I had accepted the fact that this week, was a week of forced rest. When I started feeling cold, I immediately took a nap.
Friday: Finally, my body started to feel normal again. I was able to work, but I was careful not to overdo it. I was able to speak straight sentences without coughing.
Saturday: Tried to run 1km. My legs said, “Cute idea.” My lungs disagreed. I walked another km, and decided that my base fitness would carry me through tomorrow.
Sunday: I showed up for my half marathon. I didn’t race it this time—I ran at a kind, sustainable pace. No records, no pressure. Just presence. However, when it began to rain at the starting line, I was beginning to have doubts. I was thinking I might get sick again. But I didn’t. I kept at it, finished strong, and nothing was aching afterwards. I’m glad I took it easy, and that I’m in such a shape that I can do an “easy half.”
Sometimes, the body tells us what our mind refuses to accept
I’d planned for a productive week, but apparently, the universe had its own version in mind. Complete with bad Wi-Fi, a global outage, and a fever that forced me to slow down in every sense.
It’s funny how the body, and sometimes even technology, just refuses to cooperate until you get the message: Stop trying to push through everything.
Rest isn’t always a sign of weakness. We shouldn’t feel guilty for needing to take a break.
I’ve always been good at planning and pushing. At squeezing one more deliverable, just one more run, one more everything into the week. But when everything stopped working, I got the message.
So this week, I didn’t set a PR. I didn’t hit my productivity goals. But I did something new: I let go.
And maybe sometimes, that’s the kind of progress that actually matters.
I learned that:
The world doesn’t end when I rest. My clients were fine. My teammates were fine. The world kept spinning. Sure, many workers probably acted like the world had ended when Canva went down. But guess what? It went back up again.
Fitness isn’t lost overnight. My legs remembered what to do. My base fitness, built through consistency, carried me through when it mattered. And rest? It only makes us stronger.
Grace is a muscle too. It gets stronger every time we choose kindness toward ourselves. I need to exercise this more, I know.
This wasn’t the week I planned. But maybe, just maybe, it was the week I needed.
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