Let's put rest before work

What if rest was the start-off point, not the end reward?

Now that the nights have drawn in, and it’s damp and cold, at least if you live in the Northern hemisphere, it’s a good time to practice putting rest first.

Usually we think of our lives as work first, long hours and lots of effort, getting fatigued and stressed, and only then, allowing ourselves the reward of some rest, as if it were a gold star for good behaviour. But what if we thought about it the other way round? That in order to produce good work, to spark creative ideas, we need to rest first?

Think about it. When did your last juicy idea arise effortlessly? Was it when you were rushing from school drop-off to your computer and then your next Zoom meeting? Or was it when you were in some place of spaciousness, like the view from the top of a hill after a brisk walk? Or after playing a silly game with your children, or cutting back the roses? Perhaps it came when you shared a glass of wine with a friend.

When we relax enough to drop into our parasympathetic nervous system, we start to rest and repair. When we rest and repair, we replenish our capacity. We become resilient again, and then we start to resonate. We hear the first chimes of a good idea, or a solution to a problem.

If you are seriously depleted, this re-filling can take some time, before you are revived enough to receive that new inspiration. You may have to go through a sort of void, a feeling of nothingness first. This is rarely comfortable, but it is necessary.

Of course, the creative cycle is not a linear process. Rest comes at both the beginning and the end. You may not have the time or money to book a holiday, but you can make rest your priority in a hundred tiny ways. A five minute meditation before you go to work. A five minute stare out of your window at some trees while you drink your morning tea. A cuddle with your favourite human being or furry friend.

Rest doesn’t need to be big, complicated or expensive. It can come in little moments of spaciousness, peppered throughout your day.