The Power of Showing Up (Healthy)
By Evelyn Chen

There I was, feverish and debilitated, setting up my third load of laundry at 11pm on a Friday night. My throat hurt. My head throbbed. My body screamed for rest. But did I listen? Of course not. I had a system: load the washer, set the timer and crawl back to bed, wake up to move clothes to the dryer, repeat. Maximum efficiency, even while sick.

My husband looked at me like I had lost my mind. “Can’t the laundry wait?”

“But if I do it now, I can sleep through the cycles!”

He just shook his head and went to bed.

Looking back, I realise how utterly preposterous that sounds. Who optimises laundry schedules while running a fever? Apparently, I do.

Here’s the thing: I write about rest all the time. I advocate for self-care. I remind people to prioritise their health. I am basically the poster child for work-life balance; on paper, anyway.

In reality? I am terrible at it.

I am the person who checks emails during family dinners “just quickly.” I am the one who brings work home “just to finish this one thing.” I am the productivity enthusiast who can’t sit still without feeling guilty.

So, when the flu rendered me incapacitated last weekend, it felt like karma was having a good laugh at my expense.

For 28 years, I have been That Person. You know the one. The person who scrutinises Monday absenteeism. The one who thinks, “Really? You had the whole weekend to recuperate. How are you still sick?”

I have never comprehended it. Young, healthy people calling in sick after a weekend? It made no sense. Clearly, they just didn’t persevere like I did.

Yeah. About that.

Sunday hit and my entire household was utterly debilitated. And you know what my first thought was?

“I need to be better by Monday for work.”

My second thought? “How many staff will call in sick tomorrow?”

And my third thought; the one that changed everything.. was: “Wait. I had the whole weekend to rest. Why am I not better?”

Oh. OH.

I hadn’t rested at all.

Sure, I had been home. Technically, I had “had the weekend off.” But I spent Friday night executing tactical laundry operations. Saturday medicated and hustling between naps. Sunday collapsed but still mentally strategising Monday’s work.

That’s not rest. That was exhaustion just with an alternative location.

And if I; with my 28 years of experience, my undying dedication, my “I never call in sick” track record; couldn’t maintain my health with that approach, what made me think anyone else could?

Spoiler alert: They can’t. Nobody can. Not sustainably, anyway.

Here’s what I realised: The problem isn’t that people are frail or uncommitted when they call in sick on Monday. The problem is that contemporary life doesn’t actually provide us time to recover.

We are instructed to work diligently during the week, then use weekends to catch up on everything we neglected: laundry, groceries, family time, cleaning, errands and oh right; rest.

Except you can’t do all of that AND actually rest. It is mathematically impossible.

So we persevere. We maximise. We optimise. We convince ourselves that doing laundry while feverish is somehow “resting” because at least we are home. Right?

AND THEN Monday arrives and we are astonished that we are still exhausted.

Then it finally resonated with me: Our students don’t need flawless attendance from teachers who are barely functioning. They need healthy, present, engaged adults.

A teacher who drags herself to school sick isn’t demonstrating dedication. She is being contagious. And ineffective. And modelling inadequate self-care for children who are learning what adult responsibility looks like.

Your best work doesn’t come from showing up half-dead. It comes from showing up healthy, rested and ready.

I am now redefining what “showing up” means.

Old definition: Physically present, no matter what.

New definition: Mentally, physically and emotionally capable of contributing.

This means:

• If I am sick, I stay home. Period. No heroics.
• If I am exhausted, I rest, actually rest, not productive rest.
• If my body says slow down, I don’t negotiate with it like we are haggling at a market.

Will this be easy? Absolutely not. I have spent three decades perfecting the art of persevering through adversity. Undoing that won’t happen overnight.

But it has to happen. Because I can’t keep writing about the importance of rest while simultaneously doing laundry at 11 pm with a fever.

That is not role modelling. That is a cautionary tale.

I am still not great at resting. But at least I am trying. I am learning. I am practising what I preach, one imperfect day at a time.

And I am definitely done (read trying) scrutinising Monday absenteeism. Because now I comprehend it. Now I understand that sometimes, people aren’t indolent or uncommitted; they are just human beings whose bodies finally said, “Nope. Not today.”

Rest isn’t a reward for the weak. It is maintenance for the functional.

So go ahead. Rest. Actually rest. Your laundry will still be there tomorrow.

(Trust me, it’s always there.)

 

Words to learn

Debilitated – weakened, exhausted

Preposterous – absurd, unreasonable

Rendered me incapacitated – made unable to function

Persevere – continue despite difficulty

Adversity – difficulties, challenges

Indolent – habitually lazy

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If this blog introduced you to new words like debilitated, persevere, or indolent, imagine what structured English learning could do! At ILTI, we help learners of all ages, levels and needs expand their vocabulary and communication confidence.

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