Rest

Sometimes it's best to rest. Sometimes that's obvious. Like when you're sick or injured. Other times it feels at odds with what you need to do. Like when you're overwhelmed by your To Do list.

I'm learning about rest. Resting into the way things are. I'm learning that sometimes the best thing to do when life feels difficult and impossible is to stop and rest. Despite appearances (after all I do like challenges), I believe that life is meant to be lived with ease. All of that resistance and difficulty is a sign telling us to rest. Whatever needs to be accomplished will be much easier after a rest.

I think that sometimes just the recharging that takes place during rest is what creates the shift. But more often, I think, something shifts in our thinking, in our problem solving, that creates the shift. Maybe we just get unstuck from whatever place we're in when we take a moment or an hour or a day to rest. Our perspective widens and possibilities come into our awareness. Possibilities that were always there, but our focus was too narrow to see them. Rest widens our view. And then shift happens.

Or maybe, by waiting, we learn something new which makes a new solution possible. Or maybe the new information allows us to see that what we thought HAD to be done, doesn't have to be done at all. But if we had kept pushing and pushing, driving towards the completion of our To Do list, we would have just worked ourselves into a tizzy, stressed our and anxious. By choosing to rest we find a way to live with ease.

Of course the worry is that we will just lay around waiting for inspiration to strike us and nothing will ever get done. So where is the line? I suppose that when you have a To Do list, no matter how long it is, and you are working calmly, contentedly, in a focused manner, keep going. But when you start feeling anxious, stressed and irritable, take a rest.

I like rest. It feels so nice and it creates more ease in my life. How good is that?