There's a type of person who only feels permission to rest when they're physically sick, and the illness isn't the problem. The problem is the invisible equation they absorbed decades ago that says rest must be earned through suffering and a healthy body has no valid claim to stillness. - Silicon Canals

"Sickness is the only socially acceptable form of rest in most families, and the people who absorbed that lesson earliest are the ones who now feel a strange relief when they catch a cold. Not because they enjoy being sick. Because illness finally gives them what they could never give themselves: a reason to stop."

"The inability to rest without a medical excuse isn't a scheduling failure. It's a belief system operating below conscious awareness, one that equates a healthy body at rest with moral failure."

"Rest equals laziness. Laziness equals bad. The only exception to this equation is physical inability. If you're sick, you get a pass. If you're well, you'd better be moving."

Many individuals feel relief when sick because illness provides a socially acceptable reason to stop. The inability to rest stems from a belief system equating rest with moral failure. Observational lessons from childhood, such as parents only resting after chores, instill the idea that rest is a luxury. Comments suggesting that resting while others work is wrong create a formula in children’s minds: rest equals laziness, which is bad. This belief feels like reality, making it difficult to recognize and change.

Read at Silicon Canals