I’ve been under the weather lately — and if there’s one thing I hate more than being sick, it’s being unproductive while being sick.

The content stops. My brain turns to mush. My focus? Out the window. I’ll force myself to do the bare minimum, maybe even drag myself to work, but truthfully… when I’m sick, I’m not me.

So when the fever breaks and I start to feel like myself again, it’s time to bounce back. Not rush, not panic — just slowly recharge and reset. Here’s how I return to myself, one small ritual at a time.

Baths Are My Sanctuary

I always begin here — in the bath.

Soaking isn’t just for vibes. It’s therapeutic, essential, and one of the first things I turn to both during and after sickness. It helps with body aches, chills, congestion, and that general “blah” feeling. I always add drops of peppermint essential oil to open my sinuses — a tiny act of magic in hot water.

And even when I’m almost better, I keep the bath ritual going. It tells my body, we’re healing now. It’s the bridge between rest and return.

Drink the Water. Eat the Things. Keep the Routine Going.

After a bath, I gently remind myself: don’t stop what was working just because you feel a little better.

When I’m sick, I chug water, sip teas, eat broths — all the textbook remedies. But once my energy lifts just a little, I forget. I go back to regular food, stop drinking as much, and suddenly I feel… off.

So now I keep the rhythm going. More fluids. Light, healing meals. Because bouncing back isn’t a flip of a switch — it’s a slow dimmer turning the lights back on.

Ease Back Into Movement

Once I’ve rehydrated and refueled, I check in with my body — not to push it, but to move it.

No intense workouts here. Honestly, any time I’ve tried exercising while still sick, it’s a disaster. Dizziness, lightheadedness, the whole nine. So instead, I wait until the fog lifts.

Then I stretch. I walk. I do something gentle to reconnect with my body. Not to sweat it out — but to say, I’m still here. I’m coming back.

Read in the Stillness

With the body slowly waking up, I turn to the mind.

One of my favorite things about being sick (if that’s even allowed) is the quiet. The silence. No obligations, no pings or calls. Just stillness.

That’s when I read the most. There are no distractions — just me, a blanket, and a story. And because reading requires full attention, it becomes a kind of mindfulness. A tether to the present moment, while everything else pauses.

Watch Something That Feels Like a Hug

But if I can’t focus on reading — I don’t force it.

Sometimes the attention span just isn’t there, and that’s okay. That’s when I press play on something easy. A guilty pleasure, a comfort movie, a familiar series I’ve seen ten times.

Watching something while I recover helps me ease back into the world gently. It’s not about zoning out — it’s about creating a soft landing before the return to structure.

Let Hobbies Lead You Home

Once I’ve started to feel like a functioning human again, I check in with the things I love.

Hobbies, the ones that make me feel most like me, often fall off while I’m sick. I don’t have the energy. But as I rise, I lean into them — even if it’s just a little.

A walk in the park. A creative spread. A playlist for my mood. These little acts don’t just pass the time — they pull me out of the fog and help me re-enter my world with curiosity instead of pressure.

Journal What Happened — and What Comes Next

When my energy returns, my next move is to grab my journal.

I write about how I felt, what I missed, and what I need to reschedule. I don’t trust my post-sick brain to remember it all, so I leave myself a map.

Journaling has always been my way of tracking my rhythms. It lets me know how long I was out of commission, what my triggers were, and what helped. It also becomes a source for future reflection — blog posts like this come straight from those scribbled sick-day notes.

Do a Full-Life Reset

And then… comes the reset. The big one.

By now, I’m functional. Not just alive, but living. And that means I can finally face the chaos I ignored while I was down.

I flip through my journal. I check what was supposed to happen while I was sick — what can be moved, what still matters, and what needs to be released entirely.

Let me give you a real-life moment: the day I got sick, I was supposed to meal prep. I had my whole Walmart trip planned… but by that afternoon, the sickness hit hard, and that trip? Canceled.

That week became a smoothie-only week — Tropical Smoothie, Wawa runs, whatever I could stomach. Solid food was a no. My appetite was MIA.

So now that I’m better, I go into my budget and adjust. I spent more than planned, but not enough to break the bank. I take note, rework the numbers, and keep going — without shame.

If I missed meal prep, I plan an easier one. If my savings took a tiny hit, I make a plan to redistribute next month. The point isn’t perfection — it’s awareness.

A reset isn’t punishment. It’s me telling myself, We’re back. Let’s clean up a little.

Final Thought: Be Sick.

Really

Be Sick.

If I’ve learned anything, it’s this: don’t try to recharge while you’re still recovering.

Let yourself be sick. Let the mess pile up a little. Don’t try to schedule your comeback in the middle of a fever.

Because the more pressure I put on myself to bounce back fast, the longer I stay sick. But when I let the illness run its course, when I give myself space to rest fully, my return is deeper. Clearer. Brighter.

And that’s what the bounce back is really about.

It’s not about diving into everything full force. It’s about waking up one morning and thinking, I’m ready now.

Ready to write again. to move again. Ready to live again.

This is what my bounce back looks like. What’s yours

So that is all that I really do when it comes to me bouncing back because there are certain things that I do on a consistent basis they might not be seen as like a recharge moment but for me, this is what a recharge looks like after being sick, getting everything packed in order the way that they’re supposed to be making sure that I feel completely ready for recharge so if I’m in the middle of being sick, there’s no way that I’m gonna jump in and be like well. It’s time to recharge. It’s trying to get myself out of this funk. Sometimes I let myself be sick so that when it is time for me to retard, I can do it to the best of my abilities because the more pressure I put on myself to get better quicker, sometimes means I’m sick for a longer period of time and I don’t want that.