Just focus on getting better

 You, like me, may have told an ill or injured friend / relative to "just focus on getting better". 

I've certainly said this in response to an injured friend who has put on weight or gotten unfit as a result of not being able to participate in their normal activities. I've probably added something like it being worth it to spend the months now in rehab to have the rest of their life full of activity ahead of them.

This is all totally true - and it has applied to myself as much as the situations that have prompted me to mouth these words to others.

But there really is more to it than this.

Healing takes a great deal of emotional energy too. Whether you have a disease to recover from or the mending of a broken bone to wait out, healing does require focus and energy.

Take my knee. I'm a go-getter and I'm fairly compliant. I know what I have to do to strengthen my muscles and I dutifully do the exercises from my bio. But, I don't do them as much as I probably should and I do play around with selecting only some to do depending on how I feel and what I'm experimenting with. I could be further along the recovery process if I was more with the programme, but realistically, after expending my focus and energy on work, I have little left over for myself.

Because of this, I started to see more into the words "just focus on getting better". This is more than just investing in recovery now for later and trying not to be frustrated at what you're not currently able to do/enjoy. 

One really needs a clear mind, less other stress and free time to be able to focus on getting better. This means eating, sleeping enough, hydrating sufficiently, resting and doing rehab exercises. An ill or injured person really needs to go on holiday for a few weeks.

For people with COVID, being trapped at home under quarantine is probably the best way to get better. 

In the 'old days', if a person had bad flu they would be at home for a day or two to sleep it off and then get back to work. In my case, being really ill - which is a rare occurrence - meant that life carried on pretty much as crazy-normal - whether this was (flu) working through multiple nights (with 3hrs sleep a night!) to meet deadlines or (bad tummy bug where I spent the night vomiting every 20 minutes for hours!) setting up for a three-day expo and then being at the expo and interacting with people for the three days. 

I can only remember being really, really ill twice in the last six years and I didn't have the luxury of even a half-day in bed.

Next time you're ill or injured, test my theory. If you have the freedom to take a two or three week break, do it. Let me know whether this speeds up your recovery by enabling you to just focus on getting better.