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Belongs to: What you ever felt guilty when you're resting or taking a day off? -- JT Cavey of Erra Talks About Feeling Guilty When Resting
I love Erra and I love JT so much since I first heard them back in 2021.
I don’t know if it’s sad to listen to what he’s saying, but it definitely resonates with me so much. I’ve been feeling this way for so long, with school, music or even life in general, I can’t rest, there’s literally no rest. Being in college is so demanding that I barely have time off, and when I have time off I do anything but rest, why?, because when I do, I feel exactly what he describes. I even feel guilty playing the guitar or going out with friends on weekends. This video means a lot to me because Snowblood was the first song I listened from them and it was a really tough time back then, and now that things have gotten, maybe not that much better, but different, I identify a lot with the lyrics. I constantly overstress and underrest (if that’s a word?) and it leads to me feeling like I’m living a waking nightmare of some sort, in which I can barely put my thoughts in order and all I can do is just watch as the events in my life unfold. It feels like there’s just this big storm waiting to fall on me. And knowing that JT and other people feel that same way or at least go through something similar makes me feel worthy enough to at least take a breath and keep doing my thing haha. Thanks for the vid!
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over-stressing and under-resting is such a relatable feeling! i’m so sorry you’re enduring so much stress and guilt trying to balance all the aspects of life you have going on. it’s so easy to just let life happen and run through the motions but you’re spot-on - it feels like a big storm (like burnout) is about to begin pouring. resting and taking time for yourself is one of the most productive things you can do for yourself because it makes all the other responsibilities easier to accomplish. you deserve balance and peace between all the things college, and even life in general, demands of you. take care of you, my friend, for you are priority!
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Rest is such an important part of life. It doesn’t matter what phase of life or level of school/work you are in, rest is incredibly important. You need to let yourself enjoy those evenings and weekends off with your friends and family as ways to unwind and decompress after dealing with the stresses of school and studying. You could even view those moments you choose to spend on yourself as rewards for your hard work while focusing on college.
Burnout is a very real thing. Please give yourself space to breath so and cool down so that you avoid that burnout. Good luck and remember to breath 
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Hi! Oh my, college. It does get like that!
I guess if the things we need to learn; in addition to academics, is to give ourselves breaks. You know, letting your mind and body rest can actually help our minds learn better?
For example, when I am practicing music a lot to prepare for something; I find if I take a break…a day, or going out to do something fun; when I come back to practicing? I make more improvement than if I had practiced hard all that time. I think somewhere people have done research to show this actually works.
So maybe if you break and do something fun; it is kind of backwards studying? Hey, studying is studying! Lol
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I can also relate to the struggle of justifying enjoying myself without necessarily being productive. I feel like society largely generates this idea that you must be productive somehow (productive to whom? for what?). I read Judith Halberstam’s In a Queer Time and Place for literary criticism class and it taught me a lot about this idea of “queer time”, which doesn’t have to pertain to LGBT+ experiences, but rather queer as in “odd”. Society demands that your time is spent in a specific way, whether that means working, getting a job, a car, a house, a spouse, or remaining a law-abiding, patriotic citizen. Anything that strays from this, even just spending your time doing literally nothing except exist, is considered “queer time”. But this neglects the fact that it’s absolutely normal and healthy to have unproductive moments, or to not fit an imposed structure. If you always spend your time doing something productive, it’s likely that you will eventually experience burnout, which is really not good for your health (especially mentally, emotionally, spiritually, psychologically, etc). It could be worth self-reflecting on what prevents you from being unproductive, and why that part of you is opposed to that idea, as well as how you can compromise with that part so that your needs are met.
I hope I could help and please know that we’re here for you.
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JT, both his Erra and Texas in July work have such beautiful and powerful lyrics along with just a truly awesome and heavy sound. I feel as though he can capture so much raw emotion in his music. Music is such an awesome art form, and I am very happy that you feel that connection with this work. A shared feeling is truly commanding.
I love that you feel worthy, because you absolutely are. Living a really busy life can be exciting and fulfiling, but it has downsides just like you said. Please remember that you are worthy of putting yourself and your rest first too. You deserve to have some free time and relax, I promise you that.
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