What does Rest mean to you?
Maybe it’s taking a nap, going for a walk, meditating, eating nutritious food? Could it be hot or cold showers, social time with loved ones, reading a book, or watching a show? If the New Year marks the beginning of action for you, let that action include Rest.
Rest is a process of active choices, ones that are often overlooked in our culture of hustle, grind, and ever-increasing productivity. Too often when we try to get into a routine, we do too much too quickly and burn ourselves out. We physically and mentally outpace our abilities to adapt and recover. We plan all of our work, but we don’t plan our rest.
This time, start with something different. Start with rest.
Plan the nights when you’re going to get to bed early, or the mornings you’re going to sleep in. Choose meals that are full of nutritious foods that leave you feeling vibrant. Organize Zoom dinners with friends or walks in the park that recharge your social battery. Schedule out-of-office responses for your email and do-not-disturb for your phone to protect your work-life balance.
Design a weekly workout schedule that balances higher intensity strength or interval training days with lower intensity conditioning, aerobic, or mobility days. We often look at Rest as a passive process, and while that is true, it does require a degree of active planning to relax, refresh, and recover.
Let’s do the work – to plan how we Rest – so that we can better show up for the Work that we’re going to do this year.
Harold Gibbons 