"When your heart opens, your spirit takes over. Your mind becomes quiet-its the helper, not the leader. Your heart is the clear channel for you. It reorients you back to what's important and what's real.
-Sonia Choquette
In our society we believe that Rest isn't important especially with it now being Summer and all of the activities that we can partake in. But, I would argue that a time of rest is important all year round. Today is the Full Supermoon in Capricorn so if you are feeling all of the things I get it!! This moon is helping you to transform, in order to do this use the strong energies to harness you with some courage to take the next small step forward. If you feel called to rest, please do it as your body is smarter than we give it credit for.
Again, when we look to Mother Nature she values rest above all else and works with her cycles, seasons and times rather than against it. She doesn't resist, she practices flexibility and in that flexibility she builds resilience. When we rest up throughout the year, we are better able to handle the adversity that comes our way as it always will, it's part of the ebb and flow of life.
I still battle with the internal and external noise around REST but I've learned the hard way when I don't listen to my body a lot of the messages become too disruptive to do anything but force me to rest. At times when my body is yelling I will shame myself for letting it get to this place rather than listening to the whispers in the beginning. But this doesn't help as it just adds more stress to my already overwhelmed and taxed nervous system. Rest is being one with the body and letting the mind quiet for a bit.
As someone who has struggled with their health for over a decade I'm here to share that you can have a season of rest all year long choosing to work with the body and let the mind rest. I am choosing to rest more this Summer as my body is calling for it and my brain needs a break. I will be stepping back in some ways in order to give my mind and whole body a reprieve and allow myself to rest and build resilience for the Fall.
The constant doing, thinking and over analyzing can cause disconnection, separation, overwhelm and exhaustion. Rest is so important and our body is designed with rest in mind, but the rest we give it is not the rest it desires. There are so many forms of rest that we can partake in on a daily basis but many people think they are resting when they are really disassociating or numbing our from life.
When we are disconnected, overwhelmed and separated from ourselves and what feels good we are more likely to be caught up in these negative judgements and expectations which further exhaust us. This is because in our society rest is not revered as we are told to be doers and make competitions out of how busy we all are. So if I'm scrolling social media or binge watching on the couch I'm still doing something...but it isn't rest to the body.
Reminder again, that you are a human being not a human doing and that YOU can choose to reward yourself for going against the norm and focusing on being rather than doing. Because RESTING is doing something!! You are nourishing and replenishing your whole body, a need we all have as humans living in this chaotic world. Rest is different than laziness and some say that rest feels good and nourishing to the body as a whole. We are taught that rest is laziness and we should feel bad doing it. Especially if you've grown up never being allowed to rest or had a healthy modelling of what rest is. When the idea of rest is associated with idleness it can be hard to differentiate between the two ideas and we can feel resentful of those who practice Rest.
When we can choose the "right" kind of rest that we need, we feel the positive effects of it, we actually feel relaxed and at ease. Again, this is a practice and in theory it sounds simple but it might not be easy. But, when we can let go of the guilt, expectations and shame around resting we begin to honor and listen to our body as a whole. When we connect back to the wisdom that exists within the body we begin to work with it rather than against it.
I've included the different kinds of rest below in this image so that you can familiarize yourself with what type of rest you might need now-no matter the season, time of year or time of day. Invitation to explore these different kinds of rest in order to resource yourself to continue to build resilience to handle what life may throw at you next.
I will be spending lots of time on the swing with B resting this summer as we listen to the birds and express gratitude for the beauty of the plants and insects blessing us with their presence and reminding us about the value of rest.
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