Hello Every Body,
I have spent most of this month at a pretty slow pace. We caught covid like it seems nearly everyone else did this summer, and as an ME/CFS patient, I didn't mess around. I had us all duct taped to our beds resting like our lives depended on it.
Of course, our lives do kind of depend on getting rest. Not only in a moment of health crisis to ward off long term harm, but every day.
Habitual sleep deprivation is so harmful to us that if we really want to improve our health we'd stop trying to adhere to some rigid food plan and worry about getting 7 - 8 hours of sleep a night. All of the health issues that get blamed on weight are also correlated with poor sleep. If we're making our choices based on heart health, brain health, kidney health, we'd be better off taking a nap than skipping a meal.
Sleep is only one kind of rest, and I also spent this month engaging in another kind - a creative hobby. I managed to get a seat in a local stained glass class and I have been having a fantastic time. As an adult it can feel vulnerable to learn a new skill, but the pay off is so huge. I get to enjoy that delicious sense of mastery just by getting the glass to break the way I want. When your skills are low, so is the bar.
In our definition, rest is any practice that lets the body heal and recover. That definitely includes sleep, but it can happen any way you can fit it into your life. A power nap on your lunch break, sitting in the car in silence for a few minutes before going in, sitting in the sunshine for a spell, reading a book that's just for fun instead of for work.
The first few times you mindfully participate in a rest practice, it might not feel restful. We are conditioned to believe that rest is laziness. But believing that doesn't benefit us, it benefits the people who want our work. Some people are always gonna be manipulative jerks, but most of the time when we're called lazy it's because someone is upset we won't do what they want.
You do NOT have to be working all the time to be worthy of love. You don't have to be working at ALL to be worthy of love. And when it's just you and your own thoughts, you don't have to repeat their toxic messages. You don't have to earn your rest. Rest is your right as someone who possesses a human body.
Around here kids start going back to school August 15th, so we only have a little bit of summer left. Instead of trying to pack each day with adventures, we're appreciating summer by laying down. Listening to the wind. Feeling the grass. Being warmed by sunshine. We're having an old fashioned summer where lazy isn't a character flaw. It's the entire goal.
I hope you get some rest too.
