That Which Invites Rest
This morning I woke up early - 5:30a - an hour and a half before my alarm. This happens to me a lot these days, these long days before and after the Solstice. It's been hard not to notice the effect of more light and longer days on my body and mind. I’ve been experiencing some pressure (or is it motivation?) to produce. To be productive. To get shit done. To do more. I wake early, I eat dinner late and I go to bed even later. Feels hard to believe that just a few months ago I was getting 9 hours of sleep many nights. Here’s the thing though - I don’t feel tired when I wake up, so I’m trying to go with it. But I do find these long, long days somewhat over-stimulating and sometimes it gets to be too much. I think more than my body and brain need rest from the stimulation of the overabundance of light.
So, this morning I drifted back to sleep for a little while, but when I woke up again and all I could think about was being in the swimming pool, I got up and went to my favorite teacher’s water fitness class. And it was great, moving my body intentionally through the cool water.
After class I cleaned up and worked for a while and took a break for lunch. As I sat in my favorite chair, with my book and the fan circulating cool air I started to feel sleepy. And you know what I did? I did not force myself to get up and get back to work with a cup of coffee in hand… I let myself take a short, sweet nap. I rested. I listened to my body that invited me to rest.
I leaned back in my reclining chair, closed my eyes, took a few slow breaths, and felt my body slowly relax and let go. What’s so beautiful about a nap in the living room is that it’s a light sleep and sometimes it seems like my body stays in that phase of relaxation where it feels like my muscles are melting. It's a delicious feeling. The feeling of muscles letting go of stress, pressure, productivity.
And when I allowed myself to come back to the surface? More than pressure or motivation, I felt inspiration. Inspiration to write this newsletter.
In these modern times of so much societal pressure to produce, to be busy, to be doing something all the time, I would like to invite you to allow yourself some rest. Give your brain and body a rest. Give your eyes a rest. Give your problems a rest. Give your guilt or shame or anger a rest. Do you need to give your positive emotions a rest?... some of us carry the belief that we have to be happy and nice and positive all the time. But don’t you sometimes just want to let that go and be mad or sad?
Rest does not need to last a long time to be effective. Just a few moments can be a relief. Long enough for three deep breaths, a 20 minute nap, 10 mins to doodle on a scrap of paper, a 30 minute float in a body of water, 5 minutes to feel and acknowledge your true feelings in the moment.
I know the long Summer days can be so lovely and so longed for when we’re in the long months of winter, but I hope you won’t fill every moment of your long Summer days with busy-ness and activity. I hope you’ll take some time for rest.