Rest is a full exhale. It is nowhere to be, nothing to do. No phone, no to-do list. No “checking in on work”. Rest is taking a walk in the woods without taking a phone call, without listening to a podcast, without recording content to use on social media later. Rest is watching sunlight filter through the trees and create shadows on the forest floor.
Rest is a full inhale. Rest listening to music and not also scrolling through social media or cleaning the kitchen. Rest is taking a bath with nothing to do but soak. Rest is complete, like you, just as she is.
In our Calvinistic society that equates work with value, rest is rare. I’ve been on a bit of a journey over the last six months (since getting laid off) to reclaim rest not as a brief respite that allows me to get up and grind the next day, but as a way to simply be and restore.
At its core, rest simply … is.
Rest is the absence of doing, achieving, producing.
Rest is necessary. It is stillness. It is a radical reclamation of my life, a reclamation of my time. It is sleep. It is an unscheduled day of leisure.
I allow myself to rest because it feels good. Because I need it in order to show up for myself and my life in a good headspace.
Tricia Hersey, founder of the Nap Ministry and author of Rest is Resistance, literally changed my life. In her interview with NPR (Why rest is an act of resistance) Tricia revealed that she turns her phone fully off (off off, not just on silent, not on do not disturb mode, not on airplane mode) and puts it in a drawer every day at 8 pm. 8 pm, people! Before I listened to her interview, the only times I would turn my phone off would be for an international flight or when I would be out camping in Montana with my family. During those phone-off periods, I felt like I could finally breathe easily, a fog lifted from my brain, and felt that I could finally see life clearly.
Per Tricia’s advice, I’ve started turning my phone fully off around 8-9 pm. I can tell an immense difference on the days that I do this. I sleep better, read more, and my screen time halves. (And yes I use an alarm clock, one of the sunrise ones that get’s lighter and lighter as my wakeup time approaches.)
Here’s what rest looks like for me right now:
- Sleeping in until 7:30 am, then reading in bed
- Hiking mid-day, on a weekday
- Journaling about whatever comes to mind
- Slow, stretchy yoga (e.g. child’s pose for 5 mins). No sweat, no pounding music. Just repose.
- Eating dessert every day
- Doing things I’m ‘bad’ at because they bring me joy, like playing piano or tennis
- Long showers
- Gazing at clouds and finding shapes in their shadows and curves.
- Re-reading books, particularly childhood favorites
- Turning my phone off at 8 or 9 pm
- Going to matinée movies on a summer Sunday
- Mom-daughter window shopping
- Social media-free Sunday
I rest so that I can adapt to the ups and downs of life. Why do you rest?
Use these helpful journal prompts to reflect on your own innate need to rest:
- What does society get wrong about rest?
- Who am I when I’m well rested?
- How does rest change me for the better?
- Who in my life needs rest? How can I give them that time and space?
- What did rest look like for me growing up? Do I make time for those things any more?
- What would an unscheduled, restful day look and feel like?
Tell me more about your radical journey to embrace and make time for rest in your life in the comments!
Discover my Paris Guide
