Hi, my name is Danielle and I don’t know how to rest properly.
Because of my inability to “get going” in the mornings, I tend to only find my groove after midday, sometimes not until mid-afternoon, sometimes not at all. And while the whole day may seem like it’s been one long day of nothing, rest is not a part of it.
My brain hasn’t stopped and my body is tightly wound. I spend half the day telling myself to move; giving myself to-do lists; berating myself for being lazy.
That isn’t rest. It’s procrastination. It’s executive dysfunction. It’s restlessness pretending to be rest - that cheeky bugger.
The problem is, when it is time to rest, when my body gives me signals to switch off from the world and truly have a day of self-care, I tell myself to suck it up and just get on with my day. I tell myself that because it looks like I’ve already rested. Because restlessness is such a good actor, that I believe it when it tells me it’s rest.
I think over time we have become so programmed to only allow ourselves to rest once we’ve been “productive”. Which is such a crock. I’d love that idea to be reversed. Rest first, then, once you’re rejuvenated you can be productive. That sounds so much better, right?
