This morning I set my alarm for 7 a.m., but when it rang I couldn’t get out of bed, there was no way it was happening. I had been running on five hours of sleep every day for the past five days and finally it had caught up with me.
Putting my sleep deprivation aside, I’ve noticed it has been getting harder and harder to wake up and get out of bed for the last few weeks. Thinking back on it, it’s always hard to get out of bed around this time of year.
During the first month of school everything is easy. The alarm clock rings, and you jump moving in leaps and bounds to get ready. Being late is a rarity and when it happens it usually isn’t your fault.
But then something shifts in the universe. The song you chose for your alarm starts to haunt your dreams and obligations lurk over your shoulder everywhere you go, casting a shadow on even the most mundane tasks, like making toast. The peanut butter reminds you of responsibility and jam of things you should be doing but don’t have the time to. Trying to spread yourself evenly over everything on your to-do list gets harder and giving-up feels like a good option. But it isn’t.
Today I decided to do all of my work from inside the comfort of my bed, in my pyjamas, snacking on delicious junk food because while it’s important to get all of your work done it’s also important to take care of yourself.
After hitting snooze several times I eventually turned off my alarm completely. “You deserve to sleep in,” I told myself.
I was right – I did deserve it. Sleeping in doesn’t mean I’m going to fall behind in my classes and fail them completely. It doesn’t mean I’m going to loose my job or be kicked out of a student group for missing a meeting. It just means I need a little time for myself.
Everyone has been talking about self-love lately but I never really considered its importance until this week. By definition it means regarding your own well-being and happiness. This was previously viewed as selfish until psychologist, Erich Fromm suggested that loving yourself isn’t as arrogant, conceited or egocentric as people assume. In his 1956 best-seller, The Art Of Loving Fromm says, “Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.” Those are a few words to live by. If you can love yourself you can stress-less and enjoy waking up in the morning a little bit more.
I still got up and did everything I needed to do today but I was less stressed while doing it. I was able to get more done because I had a lot more energy with eight hours of sleep to fuel me. Soon enough the semester will be over, so don’t give up this close to the finish line. Just keep practicing self-love and the rest will fall into place.
