How often do you feel rested? What does that even mean? Does rest come under the same banner as self-care? What actually is rest?
According to the dictionary it can be “the refreshing quiet or repose of sleep” or “relief or freedom, especially from anything that wearies, troubles or disturbs.”
Basically, it means STOP, slow down. Do nothing until you feel restored and recharged. But how likely is it that you can do that? Do you ever feel able to rest?
I think, as with all these things, we tend to look at the bigger picture. Maybe in this instance, we imagine rest to be a full day of inactivity, a week off relaxing and recharging, but we all know that when we are busy, when we are full on, we will never put aside that amount of time to rest.
So, how can you rest?
Rest doesn’t have to be large chunks of time.
Rest can be sitting down doing nothing between chores and when I say nothing, I mean allowing yourself to do NOTHING, not scrolling your phone, not giving a friend a quick call but a cuppa and a daydream and a rest!
Rest can be an early night and reading your book in bed.
You don’t necessarily need to sleep, but the act of lying down, letting your body to sink into the mattress and switching off by concentrating on a book or a podcast will help you feel rested.
Rest can just be about being in the moment.
It can be snatching 10 minutes in the sunshine, taking some deep breaths and being aware of the sounds and smells around you or clearing your mind of the ‘to do list’. It’s avoiding multi-tasking, it’s focusing on the here and now, it’s allowing yourself to stop for just a few moments to recharge the batteries.
Resting if done properly, is a game changer.
It costs nothing and doesn’t have to be planned in advance. Take the opportunities presented to you however small they might be and switch off. You’ll be amazed at the difference it can make.
