I am writing this post because it is what I need to hear right now. Unashamedly, I put this into the world as advice for myself. I am hoping, given I am not the unique snowflake I was led to believe I am, that some of you lovely readers need to hear this too. The crux of it is simple:
Whatever your relationship with rest, forgive yourself.
That’s it. Just forgive yourself. See? Simple. Easy peasy, squeezy that lemon, slicey that cake, take it to the park for a walky. Job’s a good’un. Just forgive yourself.
Okay, okay, I understand the temptation to roll your eyes, mutter a sarcastic comment and move on with your day. I just ask that you kindly delay that response until the end of the post, if you will. Because an alternative may be worth considering.
Whatever your relationship with rest, I’m willing to bet that it is imperfect. Maybe you, like me, have a natural pull to rest a lot and feel the ever-present inclination to justify that need, to justify how much you rest, when you rest or the ways in which you rest, as if rest isn’t something deeply personal that we all require in order to survive. Maybe you’ve been made painfully aware by every wellness expert you scroll past of the full necessity of rest, its infinite benefits and the fatal danger of missing out on good quality rest, none of which has actually helped you get more of it. Maybe you fluctuate between these states or fit somewhere else along the Rest Relationship Rainbow (felt cute, might delete later 🌈).
Whatever your relationship with rest, it may come with a side order of stress or guilt or worry. And how does that guilt/ stress/ worry affect your actual resting? Speaking for myself, it’s a growling vicious circle of exhaustion. All this talk of the Best of Rest: the best way to do it, the best time to do it, the best ways to think about it, can be fundamentally counterproductive. Unfortunately, I just find it all too fascinating to stop the conversation (yay more blogs for you) and so I will attempt to change my mind. I will practise forgiving myself. I forgive myself for needing rest. I forgive myself for taking rest, in all of its forms. I forgive myself for not doing it perfectly. I forgive myself for sometimes letting the stress or guilt or worry seep in. I forgive myself.
Whatever your relationship with rest, have a go at forgiving yourself. And when that doesn’t work, forgive yourself for that too. That’s my plan anyway.