When I learned to type, I had to practice this sentence: The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
It wasn’t meant to disparage a human’s best friend; just teach people how to find all the letters in the alphabet on the keyboard. However, foxes still come off better with the implication that their quickness means they are industrious, speedy, productive, go-getting little beasts, unlike their indolent, relaxed, unproductive unfocused canine brethren.
I thought about the lazy dogs and the quick brown foxes because August 10 was National Lazy Day. Not sure if it is truly a holiday but the article promoted all the ways one could be lazy. Now the dictionary definition of lazy is unwillingness to work or expend energy. The article I linked to said lazy was simply doing nothing all day: none of the work, none of the stress, none of the musts, shoulds or have-tos in our lives.
Sounds ideal. And for the two weeks that was my vacation I lived every day as if it was National Lazy Day. I got up when I wanted, I napped when I felt like, I ate lots of yummy food, and didn’t make a single decision outside of what I would eat, read or do to have fun.
This was the first vacation ever that I have not brought a laptop or tablet on which to do work. I came back home rested, relaxed, refreshed and rejuvenated. It was the perfect vacation.
I made a resolution to be lazy more often. I think taking time to truly rest for a period longer than a weekend contributes to health and well being. Recently a number of people in my networks shared this post:
Back in the day people with means would send their female offspring and partners to the seaside or the country to recover from whatever ailed them (I imagine it was living with the effects of patriarchy that was at the root of their illness). We don’t do that anymore, but what if we could create that space where we could be absent from our responsibilities and explore what rest and recovery mean to us?
High-performance athletes build in rest days. While my own goals are more modest, there is value in building in a time where you do nothing but rest. I know we often hear “a change is as good as a rest” but let me tell you, having engaged in active rest for two weeks, you need more than a simple change, you need to practice resting.
Over the next couple of weeks, I am going to explore how I can add periods of active rest in my day and how I can be more effective in my recovery periods.
MarthaFitat55 is looking forward to being fit at every age.
