““Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes…including you.” ”
Yesterday I returned home from a week on the Big Island of Hawaii. The truth is, the first six weeks of 2020 felt like an entire year (can anyone else relate?!) and I was already in serious need of a chance to slow my sprint to more of a saunter, get some rest, and reconnect with myself through nature.
The other truth is that even when you need time to rest, it isn’t always easy to take it— or even enjoy it! I spent the first two days of my vacation pretty disoriented by being disconnected from my work (and my phone) and feeling guilty about the communication I wasn’t responding to + all the percolating opportunities that I was putting on pause.
It's one thing to know that you need to give yourself time to rest and reset, and it’s entirely another to actually do it (yes, even when there’s a magical Hawaiian beach beckoning).
But if there’s one thing I’ve learned over and over again it’s this: our ability to charge ahead is directly tied to our ability to recharge. Nothing fuels resilience more than REST.
Just like every athlete knows, recovery must be part of your weekly plan or your performance actually diminishes over time. Recovery is required! Creating space for yourself within your work is critical in combatting burnout, and it is no easy task to say the least. It takes a healthy dose of discipline and some practice too, especially if it feels like another thing you should do.
So, for those of you (like me) who sprinted through the first two months of the year, I invite you to reorient yourself to the importance of rest and where you can take a daily “sacred pause”. You don’t have to create space for a tropical vacation, just focus a few minutes each day on intentionally slowing down and doing one thing that makes you feel truly nourished and brings you a feeling of ease.
And if you don’t have any idea where to start, focus on how you want to feel and do one thing that helps you connect to that feeling state (dance, hike, meditate, cook, journal or yoga your way there!).
As you practice building your “rest muscle", you will bring more strength into everything in your life, guaranteed.
And if you’d like to take a sacred pause with me this week, I’m leading two special breathwork events: tomorrow 2/25 with Six Degrees Society and Thursday 2/27 at the Assembly in SF. I’d love to breathe and rest with you!