“Burnout exits because we’ve made rest a reward rather than a right.” – The Last Mindbender
My friend sent this quote to our group chat. It was in response to another friend who has a high-powered job, on top of raising three teenaged daughters. This particular friend was saying that she wasn’t able to unwind on their family’s spring break vacation until almost five days into the trip, and only two days before they were to head back home. Sadly, we all could relate. This inability to rest and to let go, was an experience which was familiar to all of us.
It has also always annoyed me, that we feel the need to tell ourselves, and to tell others, that we “deserve”, or we have “earned” our vacations or our spa treatments or our naps. Why is rest a guilty pleasure? Why must we wait until we are in a sick or weakened state to allow ourselves to experience solid rest? Rest is imperative. Rest is restorative. Rest is renewal.
I am writing this blog post late on Monday evening. I will be leaving at 5:30 in the morning, for an all-day tennis competition, just like I did yesterday. I am exhausted. I spent all day out in the scorching Florida sun, doing all sorts of activities to support my daughter and her teammates. It was a memorable, successful day. I enjoyed it so much, and yet, as I write this, I am bone-tired. I feel physically, and mentally, and even a little emotionally, completely and totally drained. Tonight’s sleep will be the kind of sleep that only can be enjoyed when you are all worn out and weary. Sleep is fully appreciated when your body is all but begging you to find your way to your bed, and to your accommodating and welcoming, soft pillow. When you are this tired, you don’t worry about if you deserve this rest, or even if you have “a right” to this rest, you just let your utter exhausted state subjugate you to slumber, without a fight. It feels so good to yield and to surrender to the deeply needed, slumbered state.
Are you passing on love, or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
