Rest

Wandering in my garden this weekend, I noticed that my two avocado trees, which normally shower me, family, friends, acquaintances and any passing soul with the most delicious fruit, have graced me with ONE, yes, ONE pear this year! I wondered about this and have come to the conclusion that the trees need to rest for this season.

Two weeks ago, I registered to run a marathon next January. I have been researching a number of training programs. One thing I note is that they all have periods of rest and recovery as integral parts of the schedule. There are also techniques for rest and recovery during and after the runs. This weekend I mapped out my own training program. In addition to putting in my weekly runs, I have been careful to schedule time for rest and recovery, which is just as important as the running. Training to rest is as important as training to run.

Rest and recovery is a fundamental principle in nature. It is therefore a fundamental principle in human life. Unfortunately, most of us have moved far away from our natural cycle of rest and recovery. For example, night is naturally a time for rest and recovery. With our busy lives, and improvements in technology, it is possible to extend daylight, thus minimizing the time nature has given us for rest and recovery.

Our weekly and annual cycles also urge us to rest and recover. Weekends (or whenever we break from work) are for rest and recovery – for most of us, it is a time for catching up on chores, backlogged work and the things in our lives other than work. Everything! But rest! So, Monday mornings find us even more tired than Friday afternoons!

And vacations? Even when we take them, they become times for travel, shopping, visiting and we return even more tired than when we started. It’s quite common for us to declare at the end of our vacation “I need a vacation!”

If there is one area of my life that I need to attend to, it is rest. My ability to function with very little sleep is legendary. My boundless energy in facilitating all-day workshops after 2 hours sleep and a 3-mile run at 5.00 a.m. boggles my family and friends. However, I often wonder what depriving myself of sleep is doing to the regeneration of the billions of cells in my body in the long term. For that is what rest is for. Therefore, if I cut short the rest, am I also cutting short the regeneration of my cells? And therefore my life? Hmm. Something to think about.

This long holiday weekend I have spent mostly at home “catching up” on sleeping and reading – I even slept until 9.30 a.m. Sunday – unheard of for a number of years! I notice that I am calmer, more relaxed. I notice that many things that have been on my mind have suddenly started to become very clear. As my body rests, as my mind rests, my spirit is bubbling up with insights, with answers, with questions, with wonderful new ideas and directions.

I am on vacation from the office this month. With this downtime, I am reminded that just like my marathon training program, I need to schedule regular periods of rest and recovery into my life. Every day, week, month and year. Rest. Recover. Rest.