#6 Cherish Your Rest

I’d like to dig into another practical way to cherish your life: rest. I always feel like I’m the only one who struggles with this. But I refuse to believe that I am the only one on this planet that has a hard time taking a break, so I’m going to talk to the other me’s out there. Rest is mandatory. You grow as much from rest as you do from your work. And today I want to talk about some practical ways that you can rest if you struggle to, much like me. 

But first of all, why rest? Rest isn’t just good for you, but it nurtures the thing that helps us get stuff done: happiness. At the end of the day, we push hard to get stuff done because we love the feeling of getting stuff done. It brings us joy while it taxes our minds and bodies. And without that joy, our love of getting stuff done burns us out, so even that winds up failing us. Everything within is breakable, so we have to care for ourselves properly. It can be aggravating, but we could learn a thing or two from those…a little less motivated than ourselves.

The thing that has helped me is to treat rest like a discipline. Rest really started making sense when I put it in the same part of my brain as my homework, or leg day at the gym. I noticed it today, actually. Reminders kept popping up left and right about how I needed to rest, so rest I did! I barely left the couch all weekend long, and when I got back to work, I noticed that I was feeling a bit more chipper than usual. It was actually pretty nice. But that doesn’t mean that spending the weekend resting was easy. I don’t understand how people can enjoy this kind of thing. I only did it because I really wanted my body to keep working properly after a week of physical labor. I had to force myself to really cool off. 

So how do we go about resting? How can we turn it into a quantifiable activity that we can force ourselves to do? First of all, we need a timeframe. Not so that you know when to stop, per se, but so that you don’t quit before the time is up. This is crucial to helping you keep from working. I did this for myself at the gym. It was hard. I told myself that I had to do two minutes of a break whenever I changed exercises. I hate those two minutes. 

So what things can we do? Well, the activity will be different for everyone, but here’s my answer: do the thing that isn’t productive. On Sunday, my rest day, I don’t watch movies that are for my blog. I don’t check the blog, I don’t plan for the blog, nothing. Zilch! NADA! Even though the blog is a good thing, it does add a level of stress, which Sundays are for detoxing. 

Anything that feels like it comes from that place of productivity becomes a no-no for me. I won’t visit the hot tub if it feels like I’m doing it to push the recovery of my body. I won’t go for a walk if it’s to make my legs stronger, or to get some cardio in. Another name for stress is should-be’s, and life is so often full of them. So I do my best rest by playing video games. It’s dumb, useless entertainment that does nothing to improve my life. And I make a very active point to keep all should-be’s at bay. I have rules, like how I have to get the laundry done by Saturday, or it can wait til monday. I do the bare minimum of cooking, but more than my fair share of eating. Ultimately, it’s a good way to end the weekend with rest. 

But what if you don’t like video games? That’s fine. Just avoid anything you feel like you have to do. Do that thing you’re not supposed to! Eat chocolate waffles all day! Scroll through your phone for hours on end! Be dumb, be goofy, and get creative! But I will say this: we need a break from even the things we like. I think part of why I have been able to keep pumping out post after post is because I take a day to refocus. Sometimes, the things we need rest from are simply the things that we are around a lot.

And if you are struggling to find something to actually do, maybe it’s time to open up a new side of yourself! Take up hiking or reading! Try new restaurants or coffee shops. Cook a new recipe, or sit outside. Pick one thing you’d like to try and do it on a regular basis for a month. Pick how much time you’ll spend before you start, and don’t quit before that time is up. It doesn’t have to be all day, but all day is good if you can manage it. Then assess if it was good or not. This will give you enough time to learn it enough to see if it’ll be a good fit in the long run. 

And the other place you can look is back in your childhood. Kids often do less of the things that they have to, so what you did then might be a good guide back to fun, restful things. Things you like doing just because you like doing them. Think back to the good ol’ days, and try to recreate those times. You may be able to do those things just like you used to, or you may be able to do something “in the spirit of” the memory. Either way, give it a shot! 

And lastly, check in with yourself. Why do you struggle with resting? Is it tied to self-worth? Is there a reason that you always feel the need to be busy? Don’t project anything that isn’t there, but take some time to check if there’s a reason that you struggle in this area. I know that I have found a few things that I had to reconcile over the years. Who knows, you just might discover something about yourself that you didn’t know was there. 

I pray that rest finds you. That you find the means to bind yourself to the reprieve you need to do life better every other day of the week. I pray that you see the cracks in your life that you can take to sneak in a few moments to yourself. 

Until Next Time

May Peace be your Guide.