When was the last time you had a proper rest?
As we rounded the bend of last Wednesday into a long weekend, I realized how vague the concept of rest has been to me lately. What does it even look like? How do I balance it? And, have I really done it?
I’ve been jumping from Twitter to Instagram to conclusions, and none of it gives me what I really need. (None of it gives anyone else what they need, either.) Because idleness is not the same as rest. Farming in Stardew Valley is not restorative if I’m playing to avoid an ugly truth. Avoidant mindlessness is never restorative, no matter how many times I dress it up as rest. So, I ask again: what does rest look like?
I listed off restful things in my journal, chuckling at the lack of skincare: clipping my toenails, shampooing the couch, making homemade mayonnaise (more on that tomorrow), and adhering to a strict bedtime. Things that remove me from the internet and get me in touch with the smallest details of my days, like dusty base boards, are rest for me. As I entered into the weekend, I paid careful attention to what I was doing for myself, and why.
Since everything always seems to be about bread with me (something so equally inside and outside of my control), I want to close with a yeasty metaphor I discovered on my quest for rest. I recently asked Google “why do you let bread rest?” because I needed (kneaded) another reminder to rest, in terms I understood intricately. The answer felt like poetry:
“Dough needs a rest. When handling dough in bread making, it is a distinct advantage to allow the dough to rest during the process. This allows the gluten/gliadin to relax and easily reform itself into the long protein chains which are the superstructure of the finished loaf.”
Rest gives us a distinct advantage. It relaxes, reforms, and—when the heat is on—shapes us into who we must become. Make space for your rest, even when resting takes more effort than avoiding.
And make space for someone else’s rest, too.
Next Steps: Drink a glass of water, journal through some ideas on how to supplement other people’s rest, and sit with some questions today, you’ve been full of them.