You Don't Have to Earn Rest

You Don’t Have to Earn Rest

Somewhere along the way, many of us learned that rest was something we had to earn.

Finish the work first.
Take care of everyone else first.
Clean the house. Answer the messages. Solve the problem. Push through the fatigue. Be productive enough. Accomplish enough.

Then you can rest.

But there is a problem with that arrangement:

The work is never actually finished.

There will always be another email. Another load of laundry. Another person who needs something. Another goal to reach. Another version of yourself you think you should become before you are finally allowed to stop.

And so rest keeps getting pushed a little farther away.

When Rest Starts to Feel Unsafe

For some people, slowing down doesn't immediately feel peaceful.

It feels uncomfortable.

You sit down, but your mind keeps moving.

You lie in bed exhausted, yet your body still feels alert.

You take an afternoon off and find yourself thinking about everything you should be doing.

Sometimes we call this ambition.

Sometimes we call it being responsible.

Sometimes we even wear it as a badge of honor.

But sometimes it is simply a nervous system that has become very good at staying ready.

Ready for the next responsibility.

Ready for the next problem.

Ready for the next person who needs you.

Ready for something to go wrong.

After enough time living this way, stillness can feel strangely unfamiliar.

Your Body Was Never Designed to Perform Without Pause

Your nervous system moves through different states throughout the day.

Activation is not the enemy. We need energy, focus, movement, challenge and effort.

But we also need recovery.

The problem isn't that we become activated.

The problem is when we rarely give ourselves permission to come back down.

Rest is not the opposite of productivity.

Rest is part of the biological rhythm that allows us to continue participating in our lives.

Sometimes the most useful thing you can do isn't push harder.

It's give your system an opportunity to realize:

Nothing is required of me in this moment.

You Are Allowed to Stop Before You're Exhausted

This may be the hardest part.

You don't have to wait until your body forces you to stop.

You don't have to be burned out enough.

Stressed enough.

Overwhelmed enough.

In enough pain.

You don't need a diagnosis, a breakdown, a vacation or permission from somebody else.

You can rest because you are tired.

You can rest because you've had a long week.

You can rest because you want twenty quiet minutes.

And sometimes you can rest simply because rest feels good.

There doesn't have to be a better reason.

What If Rest Became Something You Practiced?

Maybe rest doesn't have to mean disappearing for a week.

Maybe it begins much smaller.

Closing your eyes for ten minutes.

Sitting outside without your phone.

Taking a slow walk without tracking it.

Listening to music without doing something else at the same time.

Letting someone take care of you for a change.

Allowing your shoulders to drop.

Unclenching your jaw.

Feeling the surface underneath your body and noticing that, for this moment, it is holding you.

These small moments matter.

Because perhaps the goal isn't to become better at recovering from complete exhaustion.

Perhaps the goal is to stop requiring complete exhaustion before you allow yourself to recover.

There Is Nothing You Have to Prove Here

At ZenVita, I see rest differently.

I don't see it as a reward for finally getting everything done.

I see it as part of caring for the nervous system that carries you through everything you do.

You spend so much of your life responding.

Thinking.

Planning.

Producing.

Helping.

Holding.

Managing.

Sometimes you need a place where none of that is required.

A place where you don't have to perform.

You don't have to explain why you're tired.

You don't have to accomplish anything while you're here.

You don't even have to be "good" at relaxing.

You simply get to arrive exactly as you are.

And perhaps, little by little, your body begins to learn something it may have forgotten:

I am allowed to stop.

I am allowed to receive.

I am allowed to rest before I reach empty.

Because rest was never something you were supposed to earn.

It was something you were always allowed to have.

— Dr. Elise Thomson
ZenVita Chiropractic & Brain Train Center