Fighting to Rest

In my last article, I wrote about how I took some time off working to refocus and become more aware of what I am passionate about—I took a plunge into the freelance and business world, become bold and confident in the skills that I have had time to develop. In that time, I noticed that I developed the mentality of having to work constantly to keep momentum, but honestly, that is not actually true. When you continuously work, you set yourself up for the ultra hustler mentality where you feel that if you stop working for even a few hours, everything will crash and burn. I am here to tell you that is not true—we all need rest—whether it is a few hours a day or just once a week.

I would notice that every time I would try to rest, my mind would be racing—what else can I get done? Being a natural enterprising person as is, it is hard to enter into rest mode and actually feel refreshed afterwards. I find what works the most for me in those moments that I try to rest and my mind is going a million miles a second, is that I just need to take a moment, do a brain dump and write down whatever is on my mind that is causing me to not be able to truly rest. Usually writing—for me—is very therapeutic because when I write down all of the to-do’s I want to get done while resting, I know that once my rest day is over, I will remember all that needs to be done—it is so helpful, especially for people like me with ADHD.

We need to stop believing the lie that things will crash and burn if we rest for even just a few hours—I promise you, it will not! The root of that anxiety is worry and has worry really helped anyone accomplish anything except sometimes make some really horrible and desperate decisions that cost them a lot? I know that it has for me so that is why I started taking time to truly rest—even fighting hard to rest because of my anxiety filled brain.

Another thing that can keep us from truly resting is distractions such as social media and technology. I do not know about anyone else, but I notice that when I spend time in nature and unplugged from technology, I feel so refreshed and relaxed afterwards and can conquer the world if I wanted to. You can get much more accomplished afterwards and keep up a steady and powerful momentum when you continuously take out regular moments and days of rest. Another thing that I recommend along with a weekly resting day, is taking regular vacations every three months. Self-care in that area is so important to keep you from burning yourself out and working too hard to the point of insanity. It has been clinically proven that if you do not manage stress—including work stress—in a positive way, it can literally cause you to become insane. When we actually take the time to rest, you bring that focus back and work harder than you did before. That is the beauty of resting and recharging—whether you have to fight for it or not.

Whether you decide to take a couple of hours each day or one day a week to rest, is up to you—it is a part of self care and so incredibly worth it. We cannot achieve all that we want done if we are not prioritizing taking care of ourselves—that is why it is so important and why I stress self-care so much.

Until the next adventure, beloveds, enjoy this one!