Optimizing Recovery on Sick Days

I felt under the weather a few weeks ago, and my first reaction was surprise. It always catches me off guard when I don’t feel well, and I tend to take it personally when my immune system fails me. Although it was tempting to wallow a bit, I got curious instead to learn how to optimize wellness even on sick days. In the past, I’ve swung between extreme coping mechanisms. I’ve powered through sick days overtaxing my already exhausted, strained body. I’ve also stayed on the couch gorging on junk food and media. Neither extreme has produced the desired results. This past month I took a different approach to optimizing recovery on sick days by embracing radical acceptance, curious responsibility, and graceful resolve.

Radical Acceptance 

Moving from disappointment to radical acceptance of our circumstances is the first step to getting where we want to be. We suffer more than necessary by arguing with reality. Acknowledging the reality of our circumstances, without ruminating on perceived fairness, shifts our attention from uncontrollable factors to outcome-influencing behaviors. In this case, I can focus my energy on strategies and behaviors to feel better quicker, which is a much more empowered focus than ruminating on the injustice of getting sick at an inconvenient time. 

Disc Golf Obstacles… 

Disc golf has taught me how misplaced focus can influence outcomes. Once the basics are mastered this game is ninety percent mental. One day as I stepped up to the tee pad, I told my friend to stand back because I always nailed the first tree on this hole. It wasn’t directly in front of the tee pad, but if past performance was any indicator, I knew my disc would boomerang off that tree after I launched it. He asked what I was aiming for, to which I replied, “The basket, of course.” He asked me again after noticing how my eyes drifted to the tree. I launched it… straight into the tree. As I took my mulligan, he said the only way to guarantee nailing that tree again was to focus on trying to miss it. As I let that sink in, it became clear that my strategy had never actually been to hit the basket, but only to avoid the tree. On the next drive, I forgot the tree and focused relentlessly on the basket. I recorded my best score yet after tackling a few more holes with that strategy. 

Allowing our minds to focus on every discomfort, inconvenience, and outcome we don’t want is like playing to miss the trees. We tend to nail what we’re focusing on. Let’s inventory and acknowledge the trees, then focus on the outcome we want while working on the behaviors that will get us to it. 

Curious Responsibility 

Although being sick isn’t necessarily our fault, we can make getting well our responsibility. Approaching sick days with a sense of curious responsibility is a proactive way to examine the data and remove potential weak links or unhealthy patterns that will improve our wellness and immune system in the long run. What daily practices, environmental factors, and seasonal patterns do you notice when you feel your best? Although our days can’t be identical, let’s aim to do more of what we do when performing at our best. Curiously analyzing the past with grace and compassion helps us find contributing factors and key behaviors. 

Festive Seasons…

When I have low energy days, I can typically identify recent situations when I failed to follow my process or routines. A quick assessment reveals how I mishandled stress, ate outside my nutrition plan, and sacrificed optimal sleep and rest. It’s rarely one bad day, but a series of bad days that catch up with me. The holidays are always busy, but the last half of this past December was exceptionally taxing (and rewarding). There was coast-to-coast traveling, planning for a new business, celebrating a wedding, and all the normal parties and festivities that accompany Christmas and New Year’s. Even wonderful, beautiful, good things can stretch and strain us past healthy limits. When we are in seasons of high stress we must prioritize high recovery. I failed to do that last month, but I’ve since reflected on how to create pockets of rest and enforce hard stops during the next holiday season. I’m not willing to sacrifice the joy of connecting during the holiday season, so I know I will need to pull back a little in my contribution (work), so my condition (health) isn’t compromised. For most of us, different seasons will require slight adjustments to maintain our alignment, and that’s empowering to know.  

Graceful Resolve 

As tempting as it is to abandon structure and discipline when we don’t feel our best, this approach is rarely productive or effective for optimal recovery. My three core habits that keep me thriving are reading my Bible, recommitting to my vision, and moving for 30 minutes. While flexibility in our approach may be necessary, sacrificing healthy habits isn’t a sound strategy. We can plan knowing that rainy days will come. Preserve the momentum of essential habits by breaking them into tiny habits. This will serve as a placeholder in your routine, boost your confidence and sense of accomplishment, and create comparable benefits to executing your normal routine. 

Adjusting for Capacity…

On the morning I started feeling sick, I laced up my shoes and started my scheduled workout which consisted of 30 minutes of zone two cardio and 15 minutes of weight training. I knew I was off my game a few minutes into the block. Listening to my exhausted body and verifying my off-range stats, I decided to call it. I determined a 45-minute cardio and strength block was not what my body needed, but I didn’t throw in the towel for the week. I needed to pivot, so the next day I took two 15-minute walks around the block. The morning walk helped me get moving to clear my stuffy head and the afternoon walk helped me stretch my legs and enjoy some fresh air. Although those two short walks might not be impressive, they reminded me that I’m not the person who skips hard days. We can stick with the habits that make us feel best, even if we need to modify them slightly.  

Serenity Prayer 

As I made final edits, I realized that my sick day optimizations were merely a personal application of the Serenity Prayer. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change (radical acceptance), the courage to change the things I can (graceful resolve), and the wisdom to know the difference (curious responsibility). 

Writing this piece during recovery was challenging. There’s an inner dialogue that questions whether any new creation could be original, and the voice seems to get louder the worse you feel. Is there anything new under the sun? The argument felt crushingly valid, but I remind myself how distinct voices have changed my life over the years by delivering a simple message in a new way at just the right time. We may be working with the same general principles that have governed our existence since creation, but I wholeheartedly believe each of us has untapped potential and a unique story worth cultivating and sharing. The calling to share this belief is stronger than any fears, doubts, or sick days.

My mission to encourage people to become who God called them to be and do the work God prepared for them to do is too important to permit sick days to linger longer than necessary. Protecting our well-being (condition) and optimizing recovery allows us to share our abundant love (connection) and pursue our meaningful work (contribution). What are some things you can start or stop doing today to be better equipped to optimize wellness and recovery? 

Faith Encouragement: 

• Proverbs 17:22 - A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
• Ecclesiastes 1:9 - What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
• Eleanor Brown: “Self-care is not selfish. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.”

Jon Kabat-Zinn: “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”