Rest is one of the most important and most overlooked components of any efforts we are making to move towards the life we want.
Your rest doesn’t have to wait until all the work is done or until everything is figured out. It’s not extra or a ‘nice-to-have-if-you-have-time’ – it’s actually part of the process of doing things and figuring things out.
No matter what practice you are currently developing, the underlying goal is going to be similar – everyone’s goals in this area are about feeling good and inhabiting all of the corners of their lives.
The connection between your actions and the practice you are developing is generally pretty clear but the connection between rest and success may be a bit more murky.
Basically, in your quest to improve your well-being rest is vital.
Resting is not ‘taking a break’ from your practice, it is PART of your practice, part of your routine, part of your process.
Not only is rest valuable in itself but with all of the effort you are putting in, you need to rest your body, your mind, and your spirit or you will struggle to do the other things you want to do.
You need periods of action and periods of rest in order for your practice to work.
If you constantly try to push yourself forward without rest, you may be able to keep up your practice but your tasks (and your enjoyment of them) will suffer because of your lack of rest.
Now, I know that not everyone has the same amount of time to rest in a given day, a given week, or a given month.
I’m not suggesting that everybody can just drop everything and rest on a whim.
BUT
Given that rest is so important to your practice and to your well-being in general, it’s worth reconsidering what rest *can* look like for you.
Maybe you can’t take long periods of rest but maybe you can take short periods of rest here and there.
Maybe you can batch your tasks so you can create time to breathe before switching to a new set of activities.
Maybe you can choose not to do certain activities on certain days so you have a little room to rest. (Your practices won’t be ruined if you structure them to include downtime.)
You can reduce the nature, scope, or details of some of your activities and practices to free up some time and energy.
Like so many other areas of our lives, rest is not an all or nothing situation.
You don’t have to choose between perfect rest and not resting at all.
Just like you can benefit from short bursts of activities, you can benefit from even small amounts of rest. (Here are some ideas from PHE Canada)
So, Team, today I invite you to remember the value of rest in developing your practices (and in enjoying your life more!) AND I invite you to consider how to add at least some small rest periods to your schedule.
And here are your gold stars for your efforts today whether you are trying to rest or in an active phase of moving toward the life you want.
Be kind to yourself out there.
And, always…
Go Team Us!
