"I can't take it anymore": how to start resting without anxiety, shame and the inner critic

In a society where exhaustion is often seen as a sign of success, allowing yourself to rest is a real challenge. It is even more difficult to do so during war, when it seems that there is no moral right to take a vacation. But chronic fatigue does not disappear if you ignore it – on the contrary, it accumulates and weakens.

Maryna Didenko, a member of the Ukrainian Association of Organizational and Labor Psychologists, Candidate of Psychological Sciences, and business coach, explains specifically for LIGA.net where the feeling of guilt for rest comes from, what the dangers of refusing to reboot are, and how to learn to recover — without shame, anxiety, and obsessive thoughts about work.

Why do we feel guilty for wanting to relax?

According to Marina Didenko, this phenomenon is often caused by a combination of personal beliefs and deeply rooted sociocultural guidelines.

– In the modern world, particularly in Western and post-Soviet contexts, a culture of productivity (or even toxic productivity ) has become deeply rooted—the idea that a person's value directly depends on their efficiency, effectiveness, and ability to constantly work and achieve.