Rest is Important

"Rest and self-care are so important. When you take time to replenish your spirit, it allows you to serve others from the overflow. You can not serve from an empty vessel." -Eleanor Brownn

      Dance is a very time consuming activity and sport, and it is also very tiring. A lot of dancers over work themselves and don't realize till it might be a little too late. It's very hard to take off time. 

I can speak to this topic from experience. I am generally a very healthy high schooler I rarely get sick but this fall was rough for me. I got to go to the doctors office every two weeks from October 2nd till November 2nd. This was during the busiest time of the year for me since my team was preparing for the high school dance team state competition. 

      My life is crazy busy between show choir dance team and studio dance so when I was tired all the time for four weeks I didn't really think much of it at first. After four weeks of this feeling I made my first trip to the doctors office. I tested positive for walking pneumonia. Now this is were I needed to take a break and slow down, rest and get better, but I thought by resting I would let my team down. What I didn't realize was by not resting I was letting my team down. 

       I had to go on four different antibiotics through out two months to beat the walking pneumonia. That was two more months of me being fatigued all the time. 

       I thought pushing through it would help my team be better but it wasn't the case at all. I just made myself get worse and not be at my top ability for a longer amount of time. I was healthy for about two weeks, or so I thought I was. Then the week of state I felt worse than ever so I got to make another trip to the doctors office. Yes, I was sick again with strep throat two days before the state competition. 

       Now I realize that if I would have rested and slowed down at the beginning I wouldn't have gotten so sick in the end. So dancers, it is ok to take time to rest and get better, the healthy you is going to be so much more helpful for your team than you are when you are sick. Nearly two months later I finally am realizing what it's like to actually feel healthy again and I regret putting my self through all of that trouble and awful feeling just because I was to scared to rest and take time to get healthy.