You (Yes, YOU) Deserve Rest

Last month I wrote about taking intentional rest over the winter holiday. Which, I’m glad to say, I did. And, for approximately a decade I have come out of winter break saying that I’m going to take one long weekend a month. A couple of years I even went so far as to hold the dates on my calendar. This weekend, for the first time, I actually did it.

This is not to say I haven’t taken a vacation in ten years. I’m very good at vacation. But just taking a day to rest is not something I do, nor do well. (I spent part of Friday answering emails.) In fact I spent about a week trying to figure out someplace to go, because I am hardwired to be productive, even when taking a break. Fortunately, the weather had other plans, so I simply . . . took a day. Slept until my body told me to wake up (6 am, I’m sorry to report). And yes, I cleaned my house, and ran some errands (again, that productivity thing), but I also just . . . rested.

It's February, and I am tired to my bones. And I bet you are, too. This constant, unending news cycle, the chaos and the panic, the fear and the hatred, depend on us being tired. Worn out. Exhausted. But, as Tricia Hersey has told us, rest is resistance, and you are worthy of it, as am I. That is not to say we shouldn’t fight back. But we also have to recognize that we are not at our fighting weight. That requires discipline, and energy, and yes, rest. Rest disrupts, and rest is how we reclaim our power.

I’m someone who aims to move my body seven days a week. While there is part of me that feels like that is healthy, I also know that sometimes the body needs rest for recovery and to grow stronger. And yet, on those days that I oversleep my alarm, and just can’t find time to fit it in, I somehow can’t stop myself from feeling guilty about it. I need to remind myself, I deserve rest. My body deserves rest.

On Friday I turned in my WIP to an editor I have hired to give me in-depth and line-level feedback. He will have it for the next two weeks, after which there will be much more work for me to do. My first thought was to make a list of all the things I should be doing in the meantime: editing my draft synopsis and query letter, building my query list, even brainstorming the next project. But I simply couldn’t. My brain needed rest. It needed TV, and catching up on reading, and a nap.

Rest is resistance. We rest so that we can come back stronger, smarter, more clear-eyed on our goals, more able to fight the fights that need fighting. So here’s to more days off, just because, even when the to-do list is long. Here’s to recognizing that the only people who benefit from our exhaustion are the ones who enable it. Here’s to rewiring ourselves: we are worthy and deserving of rest.