How to Use Rest As An Opportunity to Heal
Greetings beautiful soul and welcome back! ⭐
I’m reading this book, Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey. It is so good! I’m so happy to read other people’s work who really believe in rest. Inspired from this book is a post about how to use rest as an opportunity to heal.
Why Am I Qualified To Talk About Rest?
I worked in healthcare for 11+ years! I burned out really badly during the pandemic and quit my job as a clinical pharmacist in 2022. It took me nearly 2 years after quitting my job to recover from burnout, and my body isn’t the same! I need lots and lots of rest, still! I’ve had to work through my own guilt, shame, and unworthiness in not being able to work or be productive… so I’ve gotten real comfy with rest 🙂
This post is for you if:
You have a busy schedule, and find it hard to rest
You’re feeling overworked and exhausted, or are overfilled on your weekends and time off
You’ve never seen real rest modeled to you before
You’re tired of letting your programming dictate how much or how little rest you get
You’re willing to learn something new so that you can rest and ultimately heal and grow
Why Should I Learn to Use Rest as An Opportunity to Heal?
Deep in our programming is the message that more is better. Being more productive was highly favored, and being a little child who sometimes wanted to rest was just not acceptable. When we are in school, we’re taught to only have bathroom breaks at certain times, as we can’t miss the lesson due to our body’s natural functions. Being productive and doing more was praised, rewarded, and graded favorably.
Most of us also got the message that we had to earn our rest. When I worked for the VA Healthcare System), I started the job with 0 hours of time off, and every pay period I accrued 4-6 hours of paid time off, depending on how long I’d worked there. There was a cap on how many hours I could keep (240), otherwise they were forever lost. The message here is rest has to be earned, you have to put in your time, and if you don’t use it you lose it.
The problem with this mentality is that human beings are not machines. We can’t always anticipate when we need time off 45 days in advance. We all have bodies that have unique needs. Those needs will differ in different phases of life.
Most of us have never even seen what healthy rest looks like. Learning to rest and recharge sets us up to be more intentional, loving, and self-attuned people. In the space of rest, is our connection to our divinity. Learning to rest allows us to open up to spiritual realms, self-reflect, heal, and grow.
Healing requires the space to just be. If we are always do-do-doing, or go-go-going, there’s no space left to just be, and there’s no space to heal. Always being productive is highly detrimental for so many reasons (number one is burnout and exhaustion), but it’s so much more complex than that. Endless productivity plays into patriarchal, capitalistic, and even white supremacist notions.
These structures were born out of violence and theft. Continuing to always be productive plays into exploitative and greedy practices, whether we are aware of this or not. In other words, somebody profits from our bodies.
On a personal level, without learning to rest, our worthiness goes down. Our sense of pleasure and self-esteem also go down. Our access to creativity is lost. Our connection to each other is lost.
How many times have you ruptured a bond because you were too busy to respond to someone? I almost feel like the systems were designed this way to isolate us from each other (because we would be stronger together!)
We feel like we have to keep giving our time and labor until there is nothing left. And with our attention focused on work, we forget about what’s important.
So learning to just be, rest, and heal is a revolutionary act.
What Is Using Rest as an Opportunity to Heal?
When we finally slow down, there is a space that emerges that allows us to connect deeply to ourselves and assess what thoughts, feelings, sensations, and memories are emerging. Clearing away the noise, we get to connect to our souls.
When we decide to get off the computer and take a rest (or a nap), we connect to another realm. We allow the subconscious to guide us to any long-standing issues that were never looked at before. We get to face ourselves, and in that self-contemplation, learn about what isn’t working and grow.
Without the space to rest, healing isn’t possible. Healing requires a calmed nervous system. Being in a frantic productivity mode makes it hard to reach unseen places in the psyche and tend to them. We’re like plants. We need water, sunlight, love, and pruning to grow. Rest is a beautiful avenue to access this.
What does this look like? Taking a few mindful breaths throughout the day could count. Closing your eyes is even better. Taking a nap would be the best form. Even if you don’t fall asleep. Even if you don’t dream. Just taking the time for you is great. Taking breaks from social media or email could be helpful too.
How to Use Rest as an Opportunity to Heal
I’m gonna walk you through step-by-step on how to make time for rest, and then how to use that space as an opportunity to heal and grow.
Make time to rest: I’m a firm believer that we can always find time for the things that are most important to us. When you say “I don’t have time”, you’re really saying, “I won’t make time”. Do you really want to have that type of relationship with yourself? Would you want others to treat you that way? Even if you work a full-time job, I guarantee you have 5-10 minutes in your day where you could sit, shut your eyes, and rest. You just have to look for it and make it a priority!
Check-in: Whether you actually fall asleep or not (and it’s really okay if you don’t), this is a time to check in with yourself. Check in with your body. Check in with your mind. Check in with your spirit. What thoughts, feelings, and sensations are coming up? What patterns of thinking? What beliefs? What memories? What does your subconscious mind want you to review right now? What’s troubling you that can be worked out?
Notice What’s Working or What Feels Limiting: Maybe you had an unsavory interaction with a family member or coworker. Is there a belief that is blocking you from true connection? Maybe you had a weird interaction with your crush. Is there a belief about their gender that keeps your walls up? Is your inner child screaming for love?
Take This Opportunity to Tend to Your Needs: Whatever is coming up in the moment is an opportunity to heal. Taking the space to rest allows your body to be in a safe enough position to give you that information. Now is your time to do something about it, or table it for later. Make a note of it and revisit it later if you need to. The key is to make that space for you on a regular basis.
What Happens When You Use Rest to Heal?
You get to be a more empowered version of yourself. You get to take down walls that you had built up to previous hurts. You get to understand yourself on a deeper level. You get to decondition yourself. You can now connect with other people on a more harmonious level. You can invite in newer connections, opportunities, and like-minded people. You get to give your body the break it so badly needs. You get to listen to what your body is telling you, tend to it, and deepen your own self-love. You get to heal and grow.
When I left my job in 2022, I had to rest A LOT. I still rest a ton now. I am not one to overload my weekends with more stuff. My life is predicated on simplicity. I nap every day, because that is important to me. Whether I fall asleep or not, doesn’t matter. If I dream, I listen to the messages that my subconscious is telling me and take time to learn and heal from these messages. I couldn’t have become the person I am now without making joy (and rest) a priority.
Having the time to rest means I also get to heal. I get to restock on my own vibrancy. This fuels the rest of what I do as a creative and intuitive person, healer, and coach. Sometimes I trick myself into thinking, maybe when I recover even more of my energy I can do more stuff.
But really, the goal isn’t to do more. It’s to just be, and to still make that work. I am creating something sustainable by not feeding into my old capitalistic tendencies. I am transcending old programming by making this choice. The outcome is a career and life that I build by design, that sustains me and others, too.
**I show you how to do all this in my upcoming book: It Can Be Done: Learn to Create Meaningful Work You Love – coming soon!!**
Rest is what makes life sustainable. Endless productivity doesn’t. Rest is what allows us the opportunity to heal and grow. If you want to reach higher and higher levels of who you really are, start by making time to rest.
Rest does not have to be earned or capped. Rest is an inherent part of your divinity. Your body contains all the answers to what it needs. I guarantee you you need more rest. And now, it is time to honor that.
Wrap-Up
I hope this post was helpful to you! For anyone who values rest, I commend you. For anyone who is curious about rest, I commend you. For anyone who feels resistant to rest, I kindly ask you to inquire about the programming that tells you you have to keep going or self-sacrifice for the sake of your employment status, achievements, or other pursuits.
Rest is what enables us to truly look at ourselves. It is also a space to connect to universal consciousness for guidance and growth. Rest allows us to transcend old paradigms that no longer work. The only way we can grow out of old paradigms is to look at ourselves and connect to our souls - that’s where the magic is.
Sending you lots of love and best wishes for rest on your journey!
Love,
Angeli
“You were not just born to center your entire existence on work and labor. You were born to heal, to grow, to be of service to yourself and community, to practice, to experiment, to create, to have space, to dream, and to connect.” ~ Tricia Hersey
*PS - Would you like to create a life where you can nap daily? I help high-achieving, professional, spiritual women (ages 30-50) create meaningful work they love so that they can nap every day! Hit reply on your email and I’ll get you the deets :)
*PPS - my debut book, “It Can Be Done: Learn to Create Meaningful Work You Love” is coming out soon! This is for the high-achieving, spiritual professionals out there who are ready to awaken to their purpose and create meaningful work they love that they can be proud of. Keep your eyes peeled for roll-out dates!
*PPPS - ICYMI - I am getting certified in a new, holistic, personalized, and highly effective energy healing technique called The Body Code™ - if you’d like to be added to the waitlist for a session with me, hit reply on your email!! Slots are filling up fast, so let me know! Thanks so much!