I’d try to relax, then my brain would go, “You’re wasting time again,” and boom—instant guilt spiral. What helped me was reframing rest as an intentional part of the day instead of a failure to be productive. I even schedule it in sometimes, like 30 mins of guilt-free YouTube or gaming, and I respect that time. It also helped to understand that this guilt usually stems from perfectionism or comparing myself to others’ highlight reels online.
I found this thread recently that goes deep into that whole issue—especially how even the stuff you care about can feel like a burden:the liven app reviews. The OP in that post describes exactly what I was feeling, and the comments have some solid insights too.