What Does Rest Look Like?

In many ways, rest is the ultimate fuel for our health and well-being. It allows the dust-ups of the mind to settle, it facilitates physical healing, and tames emotional over-reactivity.

With the benefit of rest we can approach old problems from new perspectives, create innovative solutions, and gain new insight on what is truly important.

It’s unlikely you need to hear about why rest is important. The real issue is why, knowing it’s important, we often resist rest.

Perhaps it’s because what we think rest should look like.

What image comes up for you when you hear the word “rest?”

For many people, especially chronic do-ers, “rest” evokes an image of laying down with eyes closed, or observing stillness.

This image triggers a common resistance to rest:

I can’t sit still.

What if rest looked different?

Rest doesn’t need to be stillness; it can also happen through movement.

To be clear, sometimes it is important for us to get still and close our eyes, perhaps take a nap in the middle of a long summer day.

And other times it’s important for us to keep our eyes open.

To see things we don’t see every day.
To explore. To discover.
To people watch.
To walk along familiar paths that have become unfamiliar with the passing of time.
To visit old haunts with the new perspective of who we are now.
To see new things that have come into being in once-familiar places.
To reflect and amble and dream and journal — perhaps all at once.
To have a moment with a stranger.
To gaze at the horizon.

Sometimes rest looks like a long walk, perusing a bookstore, or exploring a farmer’s market. It may be an afternoon playing with your kids (or borrowing some kids).

Rest can be time indulging in creative projects.

Rest is about putting aside your work and allowing your mind to find other points of focus.

So if you can’t sit still, go for a hike. Stroll a new neighborhood. Play.

Rest can be whatever you need it to be. Listen to what you need.