phase 2 post surgery recovery

I've been feeling a lot better the past few days after surgery. Thank God. I've been walking a lot more than usual and the pain is decreasing so I am also decreasing my dosage of pain killers. The feeling is awesome.

I'm starting to enjoy this long break from work.

Here's the thing. It's only when I started on this long break that I realize how much the nature of my work has been taking its toll on me - particularly psychologically and emotionally. Even having to deal with the physical pain and discomfort of the surgery is not as overwhelming than having to attend to clients on a usual daily basis, especially when they are in crisis situations. And I'm the type that freaks out at any medical procedure and my threshold of pain is pretty low.

Of course, one can argue that he physical pain is not that bad and it hasn't been as long term as I've had to attend to clients. But still, just being emotionally removed for  this short while even while having to cope with the physical pain has already felt like a emotional/mental break for me - which amazes me. This makes me realize how much I've been absorbed in my work and how much I would need to remember self care and to learn how important it is to be mentally removed from my clients whenever I'm not on the job. One needs to remember the cycles of work and rest that God designed and not doubt it. In this fast paced and broken world, it is pretty hard to see why we need to rest and we subconsciously honour working more than resting - at least in the Asian context.

And I'm really savouring this opportunity to catch up on reading. It's a luxury to read and to have time and space to process information. We hardly have such opportunities at work because we are faced with so many urgent and immediate needs to have to attend to.

When I go back to work, I do hope I'll learn to slow down more often to process information/stimuli and remove myself more often from work. Need to learn to rest, even amidst chaos and confusion, which I'll have to go through given the nature of my work. Hope to be able to find a solid foundation and centre of rest and what this even means.