Take time to rest today. If you’re reading this book as a new reflection each day, I expect that you could easily become overwhelmed. I know I am because I have to come up with the topics and write the sections each day.
There are some days when I get up and feel drained. Today is one of those days. I had a lot to do yesterday, and I worked on keeping my boundaries strong. By the end of the day, I felt tired, cranky, and just wanted to go to bed.
When I woke up this morning (after a not so great night of sleep), I decided that today will for rest.
I’m going to take a nap. And I’m going to read. I dug out some old CDs (remember those?) and went through them to take some songs and make a playlist for myself on Spotify. Later today I’ll listen to those songs as most of them are from bands I haven’t heard from in decades.
We can try our best to work hard, keep chugging along, but we also need downtime in our lives. We need time to just be. Time to think. And the time to let the mind wander.
Each family member in my house has something planned for today, so I’m not being pulled in three different ways at once. Instead I have the luxury (and this doesn’t happen often) to rest today.
Last night before I went to bed, my wife and I started watching the Michelle Obama documentary Becoming. There’s a scene in the film where Mrs. Obama is on stage and she opens up about being a mother and how unprepared she was. She talked about how she became frustrated that Barrack made time to go to the gym and she quipped: “Where did he have time to go to the gym?” After she and Barrack went to marriage counseling, she realized that she needed to make time for herself—and that included the gym.
Instead of waiting for “more time” (which would never come), she needed to stand up for herself and take the time. Barrack could watch the kids and she could go to the gym.
I often complain about “not having enough time.” But if I were to stop and reframe the problem, I would realize that either I need to say “no” more often to free up my time or ask for help so that I can make some time for myself.
Both of those options can be hard to do, but they’re necessary.
And with that, I’m going to go take a nap now.
For today, I hope you take some time to reflect on what type of rest you need—and then give that gift to yourself.
Like what you’ve read? Be sure to check out my other posts in my Let Go and Be Free blog.