The Importance of Rest
As I was trying to brainstorm what I wanted to write about this week, I saw that I have never written about rest. This completely shocked me because of how important rest is and how much my life has changed from allowing myself to rest.
Through this post I want to show you that not resting will lead to burnout and an unbalanced unfulfilling way of life. You can’t push yourself into the ground and expect that you can keep bouncing back. Energy is limited and to refill our energy we must rest.
Rest doesn’t have to mean the act of sleeping or taking a nap, although it can. Rest means doing something that will refill your bucket.
Last year I did online school which was a blessing because of how productive I could be while at home, but a curse because I never took a moment for myself. Whenever I had a few minutes at the end of class, I was always onto another task. I was as go, go, go as you could possibly be. I took on an extra class, took multiple AP’s, and worked out 1-2 times per day. It was fun for awhile because I liked the challenge. A certain amount of stress is healthy for our brains, but as this continued my stress increased way too high. Eventually, summer came and forced rest upon me. I was able to sleep in and relax and I found that I was in a constant state of exhaustion for the entire summer. Yes. I was tired for 3 full months. I slept in, I took naps, I took another nap, etc. I felt dead. By the end of the summer, I was worried I still wouldn’t feel refreshed and ready to go back to school. Luckily, I finally got in enough sleep and down time to give me back my energy, but it took a long time.
I realized that I could not do that to myself again. I was thinking I was being productive and healthy because I was working out and eating well and get amazing grades and doing extra work, but no. This is not healthy and we need to stop thinking that it is. For all of you that think taking a nap or giving yourself time off is lazy and bad, it is time to switch your mindset.
When we have no rest, our energy continues to deplete and things that should only take us a few minutes end up taking us hours to complete. Trying to be more productive is doing the opposite of what you think it is. For example, if you are extremely tired and trying to get something done it is going to take so much longer than if you take a break, rest, and come back to it when you can give it your full attention. When I was preparing for the ACT, I thought it was all about taking test after test, which it is, but only if you can put your best into it. Taking a practice test just to say I did it, isn’t smart.
Let me just say that napping is one of the best things in the entire world. Past me would NEVER have taken a nap, but present me is obsessed with them. If you are not used to napping, you will think you don’t need a nap or you will give up if you can’t fall asleep asap. You have to give in to the relaxation. Give yourself time to wind down from the day, this may take awhile, but close your eyes and lay down. Even if you don’t fall asleep, it is so nice to calm yourself and not have to look at a screen or a book or anything.
Through the help of my parents, I have learned and am still learning how to give myself time off. Sometimes we need help to get where we want to go, and that’s ok. In fact, it is way more than ok. I very much encourage it and I think it is so much more impressive to ask for help than it is to sit there and do nothing.
When I began the glorious journey of rest, I thought I could only rest occasionally, like once a week. No, no, no. You need to rest as much as your body needs, and that will be different for everyone. I recommend finding a way to rest at least once within your day. It is not going to happen all by itself. You must prioritize your mental health and set aside time. In the morning of each day, I like to think of something that I can do that day that will replenish me and make me excited to keep going through my day with a positive attitude. For me, this may be a lightning game, time to read my book, napping, hanging out with friends, ordering my favorite food and enjoying it with my family, etc.
It’s easy to feel bad about ourselves for taking time off, but let’s work together to fix this. Rest when you need and feel good about it.