rest
Photo from almost exactly one year ago, of another beautiful May day full of rest… laying in my hammock (which I LOVE) in the sunshine and breeze, with a trio of books and a chocolatey Starbucks drink. ✨
Not enough praises are sung about rest.
In a world of hustle and staying busy and hefty performance, one of the greatest acts of reform, transformation, and love you can build into your life is rest.
Sometimes it will feel itchy and hard. Sometimes you will think to yourself you should be doing more and that you can’t afford to rest, don’t have time to rest, aren’t allowed to rest. This isn’t the case.
Self-care, in the truest sense, is often giving to ourselves, doing for ourselves, and holding ourselves accountable to the things we don’t really want to do, like staying committed to our goals, moving our bodies, eating well, keeping good habits, getting enough sleep, showing up when we want to hide… and resting, even when it’s hard to begin. When we’re kids, we have parents to look out for us, take care of us, and make sure we do the important things like brush our teeth, eat our broccoli, do our homework, go to bed on time, and have fun and friendship… when we become adults, with that comes the responsibility of parenting ourselves for the rest of our lives and giving ourselves what we really need to be happy, healthy, growing, and feeling good overall.
So we give our very best to the lives we’ve imagined, to the hard work before us, to who we want to be, to living as well as we can, to facing fears and struggles, and to soaking up as much magic as possible…
And it all takes energy and effort. It all requires gentle restoration.
“Rest and digest.”
I took almost an entire day last weekend to explicitly and only lie on my couch and watch the whole new season of Queen Charlotte (big Bridgerton fan!). At first, I felt bad about it because there were so many things I thought I was going to fill my Saturday with, so many things I thought I’d get done, and plenty of self-inflicted thoughts that my husband probably wanted me to be helping out with projects and just generally doing more. (Important side note: when I told him this, he was very supportive and a little shocked I was thinking such a thing and said he didn’t care in the slightest if I took a whole day off to watch tv and rest up, he just wanted me to be happy!) Once I let all that go and realized how much I really wanted to just cozy into watching tv ALL day, with no pressure or obligations, I felt much, much better. I thought about how hard I’ve been working and how at-capacity I’ve been in many ways. I thought about how much energy and investment I’ve been putting forth and how little-to-no alone time or recharging I’ve had recently. I let Jake know I wanted to be by myself and have quiet, which he happily provided. (For a little bit, he even sat down on the couch with me and watched some Queen Charlotte! Which is not his thing, but he liked it and had excellent funny remarks to input about the story and characters, coming from someone totally removed, with no knowledge of the Bridgerton world. 😆)
I wholeheartedly enjoyed every minute of my day after that. I became totally comfortable and relaxed and just had fun and recharged. I loved the show. I loved the couch time. I really needed it.
And you know what one of the most amazing discoveries was? After the full day just lounging and decompressing (rest and digest!), I felt like a whole new person! The transformation was pretty remarkable to me. I felt restored and lighter, happier and more capable and ready. I had energy again, along with optimism and gusto. After my Saturday of rest, I ended up having a surprising and unplanned super active evening and got a bunch of stuff done in little time and felt happy and satisfied. Problems that felt like a big deal when I was tired and running out of battery didn’t seem so bad anymore. The whole day was turned around, and it felt like the perfect use of time and like a very happy, fun, fulfilling day… only because I chose to let myself fully rest.
Rest can be itchy and feel hard to really commit to. It can also feel fabulous and fun and like a welcome delight. Either way, we need it. Don’t forget. Give yourself rest.
Here are a couple of my favorite recent inspiration finds on rest…
