Every living being in nature requires periods of rest. Every natural process has a dormancy built in.
Dormancy Is Essential to Survival
This period of dormancy is essential to the growth and survival of the species. Studies show that plants deprived of the dormancy period eventually die. If their dormancy period is suppressed for too long, the entire species does.
Human beings are no different.
The challenge for humans is that, unlike all other living organisms, we have thinking minds. These thinking minds often give us an advantage over species like trees, dogs, and plants.
But these thinking minds also get in our way. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the need to rest.
Why It’s So Hard to Rest
One reason why it’s so hard to rest is that our thinking minds often try to override our natural needs.
The thinking mind tells you that you don’t have time to rest. That will lose something, or miss out, by resting.
The thinking mind creates a story about how much rest is “appropriate” or “normal.” It tells you that if you need “too much” rest — whatever it believes to be “too much” — it means something is “wrong” with you.
When we see or hear of people who sleep a lot, we tend to judge that they have a physical or mental illness or disease. Or that they’re avoiding something.
To be clear, rest is not limit to sleep, but more on that another time.
You Can’t Override Rest
In the short term, you may be able to override the natural need to rest. But you cannot override it forever. Your body will eventually fight back and command the rest it needs. One way or another, you will be forced to rest.
Having a thinking mind does not make you immune to the need to rest. In fact, the brain arguably needs more rest than the body.
What Rest Doesn’t Mean
Your need to rest doesn’t mean something is wrong with you. It doesn’t mean that you’re sick. Nor does it mean that you’re incapable, unmotivated or lazy. Resting does not mean that you’re slacking off, avoiding, or hiding.
Whatever story your thinking mind tells you that contradicts this is a product of a culture that has conditioned you to believe that rest is second to work and achievement. That story tells us that we can rest only after the work is done.
Your thinking mind can override this cultural belief. Of course, to give it the strength to do so, you’ve got to nourish it with — what else? — Rest.
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