Have You Forgotten How to Rest?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always loved to rest. Give me a lilo, a hot sunny afternoon, and some gentle water to float on, and I’m in my element. 

Honestly, even just lying back and drifting without a lilo feels like a reset. 

I crave these moments and relish them deeply. Rest hasn’t ever been complicated for me; it’s one of my favourite ways to connect with myself and the world around me. Napping in the day however is something entirely different and something I don’t do easily. 

What I’ve found over the years though, is that many of my clients view rest very differently. 

For them, rest can feel like an uncomfortable absence of doing, almost like an unproductive pause in an otherwise packed and “successful” day. If they’re not creating, producing, organising, or helping, guilt often creeps in.

I help my clients reframe this. 

Rest isn’t about stopping; it’s about refuelling. It isn’t lazy, it’s strategic. It’s the secret ingredient that makes everything else better.

I am sure you would agree when I say we are not designed to be “on” 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Your phone needs to be plugged in to recharge, and so do you. Yet, we often treat our own bodies with less care than we do our electronics.

There are different flavours of rest and scrolling on social media is not true replenishment. That’s just a distraction. 

Real rest can be active. It could be a walk in nature without your headphones, letting your mind wander. It could be losing yourself in a hobby that has no end goal other than the joy of doing it (mine is dancing Brazilian forró) It might be five minutes of staring out of a window, just breathing. Or it could be a proper, nourishing nap.

When we deny ourselves rest, we don’t just get tired. We get less creative, less patient, less kind which can lead to our decision-making suffering. We become reactive instead of responsive. 

But when we intentionally build moments of rest into our day, something magical happens.

• Creativity returns. Ideas start to pop up in the quiet moments.
• Patience is restored. You can handle life’s little frustrations with more ease.
• Joy reappears. You notice the small, beautiful things again.

Rest isn’t a luxury to be squeezed in if you have time. It’s a non-negotiable part of a well-lived life. It’s the foundation upon which your energy, health, and happiness are built. Giving yourself permission to rest is an act of profound self-respect. It’s acknowledging that you are a human being, not a human doing.

So, I invite you to reconsider your own relationship with rest. 

Where can you find a small pocket of quiet time today? It doesn’t have to be a week-long retreat (though that sounds wonderful to me). It can be as simple as putting your feet up with a cup of tea for ten minutes, guilt-free.

What does true rest look like for you? And when was the last time you truly allowed yourself to experience it?