Our Next Adventure: How To Rest
The distress of always-being-tired & what we can do about it
Rest is the bread and butter of going gently. It allows us to recuperate, regenerate and replenish ourselves. It gives us the space to reflect, review and reorient. It gives us the energy for recreation and - allow me one more word starting with re… rejoicing!
Animals rest. Plants rest. So why can we find it so hard?
I’ve had my own journey with not-being-very-good-at-resting. I used to spend most Fridays in bed, doing my telephone counselling work from under the duvet because I’d used up all my energy during the week. I didn’t know how to enjoy holidays and after a day or two away would be impatient to get back to work. I was alarmed by the prospect of a blank weekend. I frequently ran myself into the ground, and then felt resentful of others and furious at myself for allowing it to happen AGAIN.
I still have parts that tend towards overworking, but we rub along much more easily these days. I move more slowly than I used to. I take yummy naps when my schedule allows. I have a full blank day in my diary every month so I can do whatever I need to do - sometimes recover, sometimes rest, sometimes play. I look forward to holidays and take them more often (I had a restful time in Shropshire last week). I’m even planning a six week break from work when I hit 50 next year…
Rest is one of those things where small changes can have a big effect. We all have our own unique barriers to rest and of course may of these will be systemic and non-negotiable - the sacred work of raising a family, the financial necessity of two jobs or long hours, long-term habits or compulsions that feel impossible to shift. That’s okay - we will be starting where we are, being realistic about our own limitations and about the constraints of our lives, and keeping an open mind. Taking everso-slightly more time to rest, a teensy improvement in the quality of your sleep, a new insight into why it’s been so difficult to slow things down - these small changes can add up to something significant.
My four week course will offer you various perspectives to help you to understand your own resistance to rest, and ideas to put into practice. We’ll cover delicious microrests, our internal barriers to rest (using a bit of Internal Family Systems), rest as resistance (a look at external systems such as capitalism that conspire to keep us from resting) and the gift of longer rests.
The format is four weekly messages with exercises and journal prompts, delivered to your inbox, and a safe online space to share your experience with fellow travellers. It won’t be onerous - who wants a course on rest that stresses you out?! - maybe aim to put ten minutes aside a day. You can also read/travel at your own pace.
We will begin on Thursday 1st of June but you can catch up if you’re late (and once you’re subscribed you can access the archive of my month-long adventures so far - mindful writing and Internal Family Systems). If the time is right for you to welcome more rest into your life, do subscribe below.
If you are teetering on the fence, either read whether you should give me money or not, or just have a week’s free trial on me and you can read the first week’s message before you pay £6 for the whole course.
Thanks for reading & whether or not you join us, maybe you can sneak a little bit more rest into your schedule this month… It would make me happy 😊
Go gently,
Satya <3
PS if you know anyone who could do with a teensy bit more rest, maybe buy them a gift subscription for a month or just share this post - here are the buttons.
PPS if you could do with a little swoosh of calm right now, try The Peace of Wild Things.
Can’t wait😃
Also looking forward to this, and solving the riddle of why I can't sleep at night but can so easily nap when I should be working.