The Summer of Rest

I’m talking to a lot of people lately who feel exhausted. 90% of them say something like, “I need to push through X, Y, or Z things and then on the other side I’ll have [eternal happiness]“ or “if only I had time to chunk through these fifteen things on my to-do list then life would be better.”

My friends. Stop. Please.

Put your list away.

Turn on a timer for two minutes. 
Close your eyes.

Focus on your breath. 

Now open your eyes. What do you notice? Maybe a little more calm? Maybe fewer racing thoughts? Maybe lurking exhaustion?

Note somewhere what you noticed. 

Congratulations! You’ve just rested your brain for two minutes! That is more than most people do in a day!

Here’s the thing. You cannot push through anything and feel whole on the other side. 

You. Must. Rest. 

And, you require more rest than you think. 

Rest is foundational. I was at a retreat in April and pulled a card from Tricia’s Hersey’s fabulous Rest Deck. Now, understand that I arrived at this retreat completely depleted. I had no energy, no creativity, no motivation. 

Of course the universe served me up the card that said, “Rest is my foundation to build, invent, restore, and imagine the world I want to see.”

So I rested. I went to bed early and slept in late. I lost myself in a book. I napped. I lay on the dock and listened to the waves. I meditated and journaled. I slept some more. I gave myself over fully to rest. 

And guess what happened?

I was still tired. I needed more rest.

And also, my creativity began to come back. I had lots of new ideas. I had a bit more energy - not jumping out of bed with zest every morning, but a little more energy. My mind felt more clear. The chatter in my head quieted down.

Rest truly is foundational. 

And yet we deny ourselves rest every day. Our productivity-at-all-costs culture tells us we can’t rest until we accomplish enough things. But who decides when we reach that magical state of “enough”?

It’s you. You get to decide. The culture is always going to tell you to do more, be more, change more, produce more. You get to decide how much you will let outside forces dictate what you do. 

If you are trying to start or finish something - a big project, writing, finally getting to inbox zero (whatever that is!), a painting - instead of pushing through and denying yourself rest until you’re done, try resting first and see what happens.

I’m declaring this summer “The Summer of Rest.”

I'm going to rest. A lot. I hope you will too. 

And if you need help quieting your schedule, setting boundaries and taming your constant to-do list, hit me up and we’ll work through whatever is holding you back.

I’m off to set up our hammock. 

In rest,

Patty