Hedgehogs and bears may have fewer brain cells than us, but they know a thing or two about recuperation. In the northern hemisphere, they find a good place to curl up and conk out. Then they bounce back as soon as they wake up from hibernation, according to the biologists who are studying them with the hope of inducing a similar state in astronauts on long space missions.
We humans, of course, spend this time of year rushing manically between festivities. We try to ignore that ominous tickle in our throat we felt creeping up just as we switched on the out-of-office message. Even if we haven’t been felled by the nasty new flu strain, we might be feeling a bit weakened by the year catching up on us. So in this season when some other creatures burrow away, it’s worth reflecting on why we are so allergic to the concept of rest.
The Scottish GP Gavin Francis, in his book Recovery: The Lost Art Of Convalescence, urges us not to feel guilty about taking time to properly get over things, whether it’s illness, grief or disappointment. “Self-compassion,” he writes, is “a much-underrated virtue.” He argues that medicine has become too focused on crisis since the advent of antibiotics, and has lost sight of the more holistic approaches to mental and physical suffering that existed before the profusion of modern drugs. He and his clinic partners, having encountered too much burnout, each take a three-month sabbatical every few years.