The Myth of Rest as Doing Nothing
I had a conversation with a friend the other day where they were vocalizing how challenging it can be to rest. Especially when you are juggling many different roles – maybe being a parent, having a high position in a company, having a social life, or anything else – finding time in your schedule to “rest” may feel impossible and unattainable. This might even leave you feeling incompetent or like a failure.
I want to first say this: you are not alone. Rest is challenging for a lot of people, as is doing things to take care of yourself. You will not be able to reach all of your ideal goals tomorrow, or even a week from now. But you can take small steps everyday to reach those goals eventually. Have grace for yourself in the process, and remind yourself that everyone has to start somewhere.
I want to talk about a very common misconception about rest, which is this: Rest does not have to mean doing nothing. I think oftentimes people get so overwhelmed by the idea of rest because they aren’t someone that enjoys sitting still, being alone, or having time where everything is quiet. I’m here to tell you that rest does not have to look like spending time alone, isolated, or doing nothing. Rest can be whatever you need it to be, and anything that fills up your “cup” emotionally, mentally, socially, spiritually, or physically. Rest might look like taking a nap, but rest could also look like exercising. Rest could look like sitting on your couch, alone, reading a good book (hello to my fellow introverts!), but rest can also look like going out to dinner with friends.
If you struggle with finding time to rest, or even knowing where to start when it comes to resting and unplugging, I have a place for you to start. I’ve linked two sheets below – one of them is an empty “self-care wheel” with sections for professional, personal, spiritual, emotional, psychological, and physical self-care. The other is a pre-filled self-care wheel to give you ideas of where to start! I want you to download both, and print if you’re able. Look through the pre-filled wheel and put a star next to anything that resonates with you. Then, in the empty wheel, fill in 3-4 ideas for each section that most stood out to you.
After you do that, I just want you to try ONE of these ideas the next time you have 5, 10, 15 minutes of time that you’d like to dedicate to “rest.” Sometimes breaking daunting tasks down into smaller pieces, or “microslicing” as one of my professors likes to say, can help you get started with a goal. Having a list of things to go back to during times of overwhelm can also be incredibly helpful to reduce distress, and make small or large deposits into your mental health and self care.