Do We Even Deserve Rest?

I've been thinking a lot about taking breaks recently. Especially after spending two weeks in excruciating pain and mostly sleeping. I realised I hadn't been listening to the more gentle messages from my body, telling me I needed rest. And so, my body turned up the volume, and then some. Now, I am doing much better, but it's still a case of slow and steady winning the race.

I am sure I am not the only one experiencing such things. What is that makes us push ourselves to the point of breakdown? We live in a world where we measure our worth by our productivity, so feeling less productive can make us feel less valuable and less worthy of love and social acceptance. So, rather than rest, we try to push through.

There's this idea that we have to earn the right to rest. We work to afford and deserve a holiday, retirement or even something as simple as The Weekend. I used to be exhausted on weekends, frequently accompanied by severe headaches while working my project management job, I wouldn't call in sick to the job, I just sacrificed personal time for the benefit of being a productive member of society.

As an entrepreneur too it can be only too easy to lose ourselves in the hustle and grind. There is always something we can be doing and unless we create boundaries in our lives, the work will never ever stop. But even when we do manage to put some boundaries up, they are often anchored in the doing paradigm. We have to do a certain number of tasks or hours to be deserving of switching off.

And so, I had myself firmly stuck in doing mode for months on end. I noticed certain circumstances were adding stress, but other than noticing and naming, I did very little to alleviate the stress. And then? Two weeks ago, I hit a wall, and I hit it HARD.

Suddenly I HAD to prioritise self-care over work. I allowed myself to sleep and not worry about falling behind on client work.I requested extensions on deadlines where I needed them and communicated expected delays.

And as I was resting, I considered the toxicity of the internalised belief that we have to work enough to deserve rest. How much healthier and happy would we be if we could flip that belief on its head and instead ask ourselves:

Have I rested enough to be able to do my work effectively?

This paradigm shift would change how we show up for our jobs and businesses and for ourselves. It'll allow us to tap into our creativity, intuition, and inner guidance more effectively, ultimately benefiting both our work and our well-being.

A few weeks ago, I finally managed to attend one of Tracy Borreson 's No-Pitch-Networking-Events and it was such a joyous experience. I met some super interesting people as we conversed and contemplated the question of what makes us unique in the world.

If you like a good conversation and enjoy meeting new people around the globe, join one of her events!

I had a lovely catch-up with Melissa Davis . We are both in the business of helping business owners create strong foundations, each in our own unique ways of course. Melissa's work revolves around the core values that form the foundations of the work we do and how we show up in our lives and businesses. Conversations with Melissa are always inspiring and no less important: fun!

Find out more about Melissa here.