Rest and Restoration as a Radical Act of Reclamation
Like all things, we live within the context of cycles, there is a time for generation and a time for restoration, a time for activity and a time for rest. We can’t always be up, out, light, creative, productive and doing. And yet, we live in a society that values one part of the cycle so much more than the other. When we are experiencing the sometimes disowned, shadowed part of the cycle, the low, the quiet, the inward, the tired, we are bombarded with messages letting us know we can buy something to fix it.
First presumption… There is something wrong with feeling this way.
Second presumption… You can and should do something about it so that you can be ok again… Happy, energetic, productive, busy etc. A whole advertising industry is built on this to get us to buy more stuff. It’s constant, and at this point has been internalized by many of us.
This is so pervasive that some of us have been conditioned out of a natural response to rest. I feel tired, there must be something wrong with me, what can I do to fix it?
Maybe I’m late to the game, but I am just starting to realize that rest is probably the thing I need more than anything else.
A few years ago I started a practice of trying to tune in to my own desires and needs by periodically asking myself: What do you need? Like I would ask a friend. It was surprising to find that around 90% of the time, the answer would be some form of rest, stop, just be…
Being busy can be a habit, just like everything else. We are so used to moving so fast that even when there is time to slow down, maybe we don’t even know how and it can be so unfamiliar, and therefore uncomfortable, that we reach for anything else to distract us. Our phones are a delightful, always available distraction from this discomfort. How often do you find yourself reaching for your phone in a moment of pause?
If we want to be in balance as human animals, we need rest. If the experience or idea of rest is unfamiliar or uncomfortable, we can practice. With steady and consistent practice, we can grow our tolerance for being awake and not doing. At first, if this is new, you may only have the experience of falling asleep when you stop doing. So, meditation and savasana will be tricky at first, because you are either agitated, or falling asleep. When I first started doing yoga, it was so hard for me to be still, I could barely make myself stop moving and certainly not enjoy it.
Now, that sweet sweet moment of letting go and just being is one of the most, if not most satisfying things I experience in my life. And it’s for free, right here with me, anytime I want to access it… Wow, don’t tell the capitalistic industrial complex about this one, it could really disrupt this system they have going.
Just think, if you put all the energy you usually put into getting what you want and trying to feel ok and just stopped and felt the amazing, already connected, already loved, already whole complete and perfect truth of who you really are at the core of your being… man, that would free up a lot of energy for who knows what. Maybe helping each other, maybe collaborating, cooperating, creating beauty from wholeness, rather than scrambling for okness from lack.
Some things you might try to begin:
Put “do nothing” on your “to do” list.
Try a short meditation.
Practice pausing for just a few moments at several times throughout the day.
Try a restorative yoga class.
With a little intention and practice, rest can be a wonderful solution to our over scheduled, over stimulated lives.