It’s Okay To Rest
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I haven’t posted in over 2 months, and 10 years ago that would absolutely freak me out. I would have seen it as non-productive. I would have worried that “they” would think I’m lazy. Who are they? I’ve no clue, but rest assured, they would be judging me.
As I’ve gotten older though, I’ve come to appreciate, look forward to, and plan my rest periods because I’ve now realized that they are just as important as my productive times.
In fact, most of us probably have a memory of a time that your body simply broke down. You were running and gunning and all of a sudden, you woke up one morning and your body was like “nope, we’re down for the count.”
We live in a world that’s always on, “hustle culture”, news 24 hours a day, trends happening instantly and constantly. Too many of us live with constant stress and chronic illness because of this. It’s exhausting and heartbreaking.
It’s the reason we see so many people burning out. Sometimes, you have to simply turn it off and spend time relaxing. Unfortunately, for a lot of us, this is actually quite hard to do. We’ve been trained to only expect 2 weeks of vacation time. Outside of that… work work work.
You are not a failure if you rest.
No matter what the ads and social media tell us, we are all human. We can’t do everything at full speed all the time. When you start feeling like it’s getting overwhelming, take a moment to breathe.
Taking a break, relaxing, recharging gives your mind the opportunity to take a step back and look at the problem, potentially from a new perspective.
The biggest life improvement lesson I learned with this was to simply schedule it. I put it on my calendar.
I can see my rest period coming up weeks in advance. It gives me an opportunity to plan for it and to update others. Rest and relaxation time being “forced” on you by your body breaking down isn’t worth it. Instead, be proactive and plan for it. Your body and your mind will thank you.
