By Jan Vicente B. Pekas
Just last week, recovering from my sickness in the middle of vacation, I finally took a nap in what felt like a long time of no napping in beautiful afternoons. The last naps I remembered was those afternoons during my 2nd year in college when I would come home just after 4 during Saturdays and just go straight to bed. This was because our classes started early those days, and an early start to a Saturday was just not compatible to my body, even to this day. Now, after such a long time, the nap last week felt like oil being poured all over this rusty body.
Taking naps during beautiful days was a habit I used to practice before. I didn’t nap all the time but when the body called for it, I always listened and let it shut down in some days. The afternoon naps always felt nice and refreshed both the body and mind.
Overtime, these afternoon naps, along with the other healthy habits I managed to form the last few years, seem to have been lost. Surprisingly enough, there were days when I would go to bed at 10 PM even in the middle of a college semester. Recently, midnight sleeping is something I considered very generous.
When life gets tough there are a few things that inevitably gets left behind, habits that get forgotten for the sake of keeping up with other more important matters. The habits with the least commitment from us are the first to go.
I have come to learn that without these small but nevertheless healthy habits, life gets a bit stale and a bit heavy. Now that I have gotten to recreate these once lost practices of mine in this vacation, I can see that life feels and looks better with them, rather than without them.
It feels nice to go to bed early and wake up early even before the alarm goes off. The nap I recently had felt even better.
Healthy habits, though small actions, adds more to life rather than take from it. They make each day an exciting one and each nights a calm moment. The mind too will be at peace and that is a luxury in these days where people are rushing after something everyday.
It can be good to look back at our forgotten small habits that made us happy and rebuild them again, incorporate them back into our lives. Life needs variety, these small things that make the many days a bit bearable.
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