And when I say rest I am talking about sleeping a good amount of hours and the quality of them. But I am also talking about taking some time off from our crazy lives to just relax in the best way for ourselves. Yes, I know that when the subject is resting, regardless, we automatically think as an indulgence thing, laziness, something we do to avoid working… In resume, something bad.
Image by luxstorm from Pixabay.
And this could not be wronger. Rest is essential to function properly. Full stop. We need it to work in our full capacity, to concentrate and be the best at our productivity, to let creativity shines. So we do need it to work well. Without it our work suffers as much as we do.
That simple. Without proper resting we are not our best versions. And that on its own should be something to consider resting a part of our daily routine, something we include to take better care of ourselves, like that overnight mask, eating well and exercise.
When I took my Transcendental Meditation course, one of the things I learned was resting is vital. So every time we finish meditating we have to take a rest. Lay down and rest for 5 minutes. If we can and have extra time, it could be even longer. Because resting is essential to the practice. And we are talking here about Meditation that per se could be something that you do to rest, right?
See…
Resting is also vital when we are exercising. Between the series and also taking a day off after exercising a certain group of muscles. Because resting is necessary to muscles, bones, nerves and connective tissues to rebuild. I am terrible on that, I must confess. I feel that I have keep on going and going and going… But even here, lately I am giving myself a time to rest.
And let’s not forget that resting is paramount for our health. We all know (or at least we should) that resting boost our immune system, improve our memory and it is what restore and energize ourselves.
And if we don’t pay the right attention to it, our health suffers.
And speaking of our health… when we get sick, resting is essential to get better. We need to rest to recover. Because that is how we recover.
Yesterday I woke up feeling the cold was trying to catch me. My sinus was killing me and so my throat. But still I went for my morning walk as usual. When I came back, bang!, it hit me like a truck. As I was drinking my coconut water I started to feel sicker. I felt warm and freezing. Kind of fever-ish. My head, my body and my sinus were so painful that I even consider to take some painkillers. Instinctively I went to my bed and covered myself. And basically stay there for the whole day. Quiet, doing nothing but resting. I was feeling so tired and sleepy that for the first time in a long time I slept for hours. Like over 14 or so.
This morning I woke up feeling way better. Rested. No pain. Less sick. Almost 100%. And all I did was resting.
When perimenopause and my B12 deficiency hit me some years ago, one of the first things I lost was my resting sleep. I started to sleep less hours and it felt like a bad sleep. It felt like I was awake the whole time with just my eyes closed. No resting at all. Scary. And exhausting. It was then, when I lost my ability to sleep well that I learned how sleeping and resting were a vital part of recovering and feeling well. It is just when we loose something that we can value it as we should. That is why I do value resting and sleeping. And yes, sometimes I do neglect it, but most of the time I honor it. Because I know for sure that resting is vital to keep me alive and kicking, to keep me being me and ready to go.
And hell, no, I don’t feel guilty about it. Neither should you.
Fab After 47 