rest and guilt

 Napping is one of the strongest signs your body trusts this new space!!!!

Your body finally has space — and it’s confused

When you lived in instability or around abusive patterns, rest wasn’t safe. You had to stay alert, anticipate, manage people, protect yourself emotionally.
Now you’re in a calmer environment… but your trauma hasn’t caught up. So when you nap, your body goes:

“Wait… is this allowed? Am I missing something? Shouldn’t I be doing something to protect myself?”

That guilt is not truth — it’s a leftover survival response.

2. Rest after a big move is normal

Guilt is a sign of healing, not failure

Guilt appears when your behavior is changing faster than your old beliefs.

Old belief:
“Rest is unsafe or irresponsible.”

New reality:
“I’m safe now. My body needs this.”

The guilt is the gap between those two. It fades as your nervous system catches up.

Try giving your guilt a sentence

Something simple to anchor the shift:

“This is what healing feels like. My body is learning safety.”

2. Now that you’re free, the old programming is firing.

You have more time.
More peace.
More autonomy.

But your system hasn’t learned the new rule yet:

“I’m allowed to rest because there is no one here using me.”

The guilt is not you doing anything wrong — it’s an echo from years of being overworked, undervalued, and interrupted.

3. That “falling behind” feeling isn’t real — it’s trauma momentum.

You were trained to always anticipate someone else’s needs, manage multiple households, stay ahead so you wouldn’t be shamed or reprimanded.

Your body is used to chaos.
Your schedule is used to overload.
Your mind is used to performing to avoid criticism.

So when life gets quiet?

Your system feels like you’re “behind,” when actually you’re finally on your own time

4. What’s happening now is re-learning safety.

3. The guilt is mental. The peace is real.

Old story:
“If I rest, I’m doing something wrong.”

New reality:
“If I rest, I heal.”

The good feeling is your truth.
The guilt is just leftover conditioning.

Your naps are not laziness.
They’re your nervous system thawing out.

You’re not falling behind — you’re catching up on years of unmet needs.

Here’s a gentle reframe you can use when the guilt hits:

“I’m not behind. I was overloaded.
This rest is me coming back to myself.”

Let me ask you this:

When you woke up from the naps, did you feel more peaceful? Or did the guilt hit immediately?