Rest. The American society by and large has no real understanding of rest because it is something we don’t practice. Oh sure we have vacations and weekends, but we generally pack those days with more activities. When the vacation or weekend is over we feel more tired than when we began.
We have 24 hour news cycles, 24 hour Wal-Marts, 24 hour pharmacies, and so on. Our lives have moved into a state of perpetual motion and rest is the thing we sacrifice to fit everything else in.
Sleep and rest are two different things. Sleep is a physiological function that you can only put off for a short time. Rest goes much deeper and is much more elastic. You can put off rest for great lengths of time, but it always has consequences.
I believe you will always come to rest. The question is whether that will be forced or voluntary. Forced rest comes in the form of sickness where your body is made to be still. It’s uncomfortable. Wiser is the one who recognizes rest is non-negotiable. It then becomes enjoyable and a natural part of normal life.
Here are three short ways to implement rest into your life; and then I’m going to go rest.
1. Attitude Change – abandon the thought that sacrificing rest makes you a hero, or even just a better worker. We love to recount the stories of how late we had to stay up to complete a project. We tell it with pride as if the lack of rest is a badge of honor. To value rest, we’ll actually need to value rest.
2. Calendar Change – leadership coaches say things that are of importance should be scheduled. Schedule dates with your spouse, schedule time for your to-do list, schedule down-time, etc. How about we schedule rest. Not just down-time. Actual rest. Don’t go on vacation, or plan a trip. Rest. Be with the ones you love, but rest.
3. Practice Change – practice makes perfect, right? No. You’ve heard this: perfect practice makes perfect. Insist that you follow your own scheduled rest time. Don’t cheat. Let people know this time is non-negotiable. Establish good practices of rest and make space for your mind and body to recover from our self-impsed endless cycles.
What practices do you have for rest?
I submit to your wisdom in this, but what would you suggest for a person who finds the greatest peace in doing what he does for a living? I assure you it’s not as ideal as all that, but my “zen”, so to speak, is when I am playing poker. It’s also a part time job for me. I am much more at ease playing poker on my PC than sitting in front of a TV watching a movie.