This Is What Rest REALLY Means, Because It’s Not Just Naps And Spa Days
Sometimes rest is moments of meditation as you take your lunch break in your car.
You can’t remember the last time you slept for eight hours.
You can’t remember the last time you slept for six hours.
You can’t remember the last time you went about the day feeling energized, hopeful, and joyful.
Depleted has become your status quo and your way of being — and you deserve so much more than that.
You deserve to rest.
When your bones are tired and your heart is weary, and you feel like you couldn’t possibly stand for another moment — I hope you sit down. I hope you breathe. I hope you shut your eyes for a moment — and I hope you let yourself rest.
Rest isn’t always a bath. It’s not always a weekend at the spa, or a night out with girlfriends, or an evening on the couch, uninterrupted, watching Netflix. Can rest look like that? Sure. Does it always look like that for a person? No.
Baths, and spas, and weekend aways, and uninterrupted time are a luxury for many.
And for some, they’re just not feasible.
But here’s the thing — just because you can’t have that bath, or that spa time, or that weekend away doesn’t mean that you’re not allowed to rest.
The fancy things are just fluff. That’s the packaging the rest comes in.
True respite happens in moments of silence. The time when you can sit, if only for ten minutes, and be still.
Sometimes rest looks like silent prayers in the morning before you get up out of bed.
Sometimes rest is moments of meditation as you take your lunch break in your car.
Sometimes rest is being on the couch with your spouse — and actually being with them without simultaneously scrolling through your phones. Sometimes it’s dinners with long conversations. Sometimes it’s taking that cat nap on a Saturday afternoon instead of going to one of the three social engagements you’ve been asked to attend.
Sometimes your moment of rest is something else.
Maybe your moment of rest is getting up in the morning before the kids are awake if only to have your cup of coffee in peace. Maybe your moment of rest is looking at the white space of your calendar and feeling a bit of glee that you have an entire Saturday to spend at home. Maybe your moment of rest is calling your parent on the way to work instead of listening to your new favorite podcast or audiobook, or Spotify playlist.
Whatever that picture of rest looks like — I hope you take it.
I hope you take the seconds and see how lighter you feel. And then I hope you take the minutes, and then I hope you the hours you need.
And then I hope you dare to be so bold as to take an entire day.
You deserve it.
Previously published on Thought Catalog, here.
