The Importance of Personal Days

My personal days turned more into personal months but I am back and sometimes better. A lot of my existence has been about trying not to edit myself and I am sticking to it although I think it is safe to say that none of us are interested in every post being a comeback, so let’s get into it!

In the latest March issue of Elle South Africa, artist Nonku Phiri speaks of “An authentic offline connection”, constantly trying to think of ways to “redefine and build genuine connections” with her audience as well as the importance of going into “solitude and doing deep emotional work…”. Apart from all the other important truths she spat, this stuck. Primarily because that is how the past four months have looked like for me. They have been me struggling to keep up with efficient communication online as much as I can offline, they have been me learning and unlearning and they have been me battling with how much of myself I share on this here platform.

After the week I had, a loaded and emotionally intense one at that, a friend of mine suggested that I take a personal day off. While the idea of personal days isn’t foreign to me- how can it be in the era of ‘cream of the crop’ facials and self care?-I think we tend to forget how to take care of ourselves. Call me the undercover queen of overdrive, over stimulation and over-thinking.

In attempt to combat these bad habits I took my friend’s advice, trekked on my two series and landed myself a copy of Elle (stop judging me for flashing this new knowledge in the above para). I also landed myself a spot in a cosy corner at Browns and rewarded myself with a sundae on a sadder day because rules are meant to be broken, no?

What I learned about the importance of personal days is that 1. I really don’t have it together on most days but my mother also loves me, 2. I got the opportunity to both laugh and cry with and at my anxiety (I’m all at once- I know), 3. I met someone new that isn’t my boyfriend (I think slash hope he’ll laugh at this) and 4. Unlike Nonku (if you’re reading this-hopefully- you may beg to differ) I cannot afford the luxury of months of personal days to recollect (cry with me). Therefore I have taken it upon myself to oath, pledge, vow and swear (tick for your choice of synonym) to gift myself with at least one day off a week-uhm maybe 12 hours if I’m not reaching. On that note feel free to police me and join me!