You know the exact moment it happens. You’ve been sitting on the Third Mainland Bridge for forty minutes, the AC is struggling, someone behind you keeps blasting their horn, and you realize theres a knot building in your back. You didn’t put them there on purpose. Your body just decided, on its own, that this was what had to happen right now.
Not too long ago, being tired was a badge of honor. “I slept for three hours” was said the way people say “I got a promotion.” If you were exhausted, it meant you were serious. If you were resting, someone was bound to ask what you were doing with your life.
You’ve done these things: changing your pillow, stretching in the morning, and maybe even bought that “ergonomic” chair. Yet your neck still feels like a knotted rope by 3pm, and your lower back starts hurting before you’ve even left the house.
If you live in Lagos, you know this role well. We raise people to be strong here. Strong daughters, strong mothers, strong breadwinners, strong friend. We celebrate endurance so much that we forget to ask what it costs.
Here’s the truth most of us don’t want to hear: in a city like ours, the work doesn’t finish. One project ends and another is already queuing behind it. If rest only begins when everything is done, rest never begins.
Not the gym kind of sweat, although that counts too. We’re talking about the kind that happens when you finally sit still and let your body do what it’s been trying to do for weeks.
There’s a quiet kind of math happening these days, and it isn’t the one your bank app is tracking. Food prices go up, transport fares go up, the naira does whatever the naira wants to do, and somewhere in the middle of trying to keep up, sleep becomes the one bill people quietly stop paying.
You hear it almost every week at Lasena Steam Bath. Someone walks in and says, “My friend told me to come.” Or, “My sister’s been coming here, so I had to see what the fuss was about.” Just recently, a woman came in with her mother, her sister had recommended the place, and the next day, the older sister was already planning her own visit. One person tries it, and before long, the whole family is filing in.
There’s a quiet myth going around Lagos that recovery is a luxury. That resting your body, easing sore muscles, or simply switching off your devices for an hour is something reserved for people with deep pockets and even deeper free time.
A friend of mine cancelled a spa day last month, spending the whole saturday sleeping instead, not leaving her bed until almost noon. Later when she told me about it, she didn’t call it self-care; She said, “I just needed to recover.” It stuck with me, mostly because it was the third or fourth time I’d recently heard someone use that word. (Nenye)
