You do not have to earn rest. It is a GIFT and NEED
Consider whether either of these sounds familiar
Scenario One
You wake up, you rush through a morning routine that consists of sleepwalking through getting ready, and on the best days grabbing a quick bite and most definitely some caffeine. Then you speed to work or class, already feeling behind and you haven’t even gotten to your first commitment of the day.
You get through the commitments of the day. Perhaps you do the bare minimum to get by. You get home, drained, with little energy to do… anything but what you must. Perhaps you play some show, a movie, some videos, believing that it is rest. But if you’re honest, when you get to the end of the day, you don’t feel relaxed, not…really. You go to sleep wondering where you went wrong, or maybe you know exactly where, but you don’t know how to fix it.
The days feel like they’re slipping by you, passion is a concept so deeply buried you barely recognize it. You see other people’s lives and they seem to have it all together, they seem to be living your dreams, but you don’t know how to establish and maintain the structure to help you get there. You might even recognize that for you, it’s not so much about doing the right things, but there’s something deeper under the surface, some mindsets and patterns that are keeping you stuck.
Scenario Two
Perhaps you’re on the other end of the spectrum. As the sun kisses your cheek in the morning -that is if you don’t rise before it has a chance to- you are jumping on the hamster wheel and running. You feel like there is little to no time for yourself throughout the day. Your lunch breaks are more of a suggestion than a part of the routine you savor. Often you eat your lunch with one hand and do your work with the other.
You leave work much later than is healthy for you, and you arrive home exhausted, with barely enough energy to take care of yourself. Much less to engage in any hobbies or hang out with friends. You eat your dinner and either you’re still thinking about work in the background or trying to drown out the chatter with some other preferable noise.
You look forward to the weekend but it is an illusion. You crash-land into Saturday, too exhausted to do all the weekend things. You get through it, adding only but a few drops to your cup, and then Monday rolls around in full force. You are hanging on, but you’re not living. You feel you are slowly, but surely, approaching burnout, if you’re not already there.
Scenario Three
Both of the previous scenarios apply to you to some extent
I’ve been on both sides of the pendulum, I see you.
Maybe you also have been on both sides and are tired of either or both of the cycles. I notice that the first scenario usually is a direct response to the second. From one level of intensity to another, but in the opposite direction. Your body, your mind, and your emotions are trying to find some balance, but they’re, for now misguided. I find that at the root of both of these issues, is a lack of balance, and I find that lack of balance is further rooted in a lack of proper rest. I don’t mean just sleeping 8 hours, simply doing nothing, or consuming some media when you have free time. I mean there’s a lack of understanding of the integral impact that proper rest has in every area of our lives. There's a lack of understanding as to what rest is not just in general for some people, but for you, specifically. There is a lack of knowledge as to how to practically live this out and create a life you can actually sustain, one that can adapt with you from season to season, without leaving you burned out or discouraged even when life gets hard.
I’ve been where you are. I’ve struggled through these things, I've struggled through learning these lessons the hard way, but fortunately at just the right time. I’ve struggled with maintaining these habits or prioritizing them. I know it’s not easy. I spent years learning about what rest is and its importance, learning about balance and rhythm, and undoing unhealthy patterns of toxic productivity. So my goal is to teach you everything I’ve learned as is relevant to your specific situation and where you are in life right now. I hope to extend to you all of the tools I’ve picked up along the way and all the ones I’ve created for myself. I hope to support you encourage you in your journey, and celebrate you as you transform your life and live more intentionally.
