I was in session today, and something came up that reminded me of a concept that exists in a strategy game called Slay the Spire. It's a turn based game, and each turn you can attack the enemy, prevent incoming enemy damage, or do something that makes subsequent turns more effective. The idea of choosing an action that has a benefit later isn't a profound concept, but I was amused by the idea of cheating a feeling of "I should be doing something productive" by thinking of restfulness as 'buffing'. I know there are times where I simultaneous want to and don't want to do a thing, and how often I can try to force myself to do something by labelling it as 'productive'. The problem I can get myself into is that might really need something that doesn't easily suit the 'productive' tag. I might need to sleep, or goof off with my friends, or do nothing with one of my cats. Aka, resting. The idea of resting when we need it seems pretty duh, but I know I'm not the only one who's struggling with not feeling like I'm allowed to rest, or deserving of it, or having to do something else because it's more important. It just struck me as a fun way of shifting my position emotionally, from an unempowered position navigating shoulds, to an empowered position of 'if I buff myself this turn, I'll have a way more effective next turn'.

There are loads of ways of moving ourselves emotionally from disempowerment to empowerment, but I wanted to share this one here.