I’m not sure about you, but I’m taking a slow and steady approach transitioning out of the festive season into 2022. I’ve taken to heart the knowledge that rest is a business and life strategy and so if you go looking for me anytime soon, you’ll probably find me down at the beach or curled up with a good book.
Now this is NOT usual for me. I’ve always been too busy for a rest. But, last year through various means and in various forums I started to understand the value of rest. The value of slowing down. The need to restore and rejuvenate. The need to quiet the mind and the body. The need to reconnect and tune in. That there is a relationship between resting and receiving. That we don’t always have to be doing in order to make progress. That in fact we often take bigger leaps by inserting rest into our routine rather than by adding to our to do lists and taking more action!
For many this will sound counterintuitive.
It’s taken a while for me to truly understand the magnitude of this mental shift. At first, I rejected this idea because it was the opposite to everything I had learnt. Rest in my mind was associated with laziness. It was a pause and interrupted any momentum that had been built. It slowed things down and meant that things would take longer to materialise. If I’m truly honest I saw resting as a bit of a waste of time.
A way to pass time, not a way to expand time.
Then as I started to understand the importance of balancing our energies – yin and yang, masculine and feminine, I started to see the flaws in my thinking. My over reliance on doing and my under reliance on receiving!
You see, in order to receive we have to be open. Open to limitless possibilities.
We must quiet the noise. Let go of the need to control, plan, order and do.
We need to surrender to the silence and the nothingness. We need to trust that we already know the answers to what we are looking for and that they will be revealed at exactly the right time.
For its only then we can hear the whispers wisdom that already resides within us. It's only then we can tune into our own frequency and receive those intuitive hits. This is the place that houses our potential, our ability to make a difference and our confidence to live and lead as our true and authentic selves.
It’s from this rested space we can take inspired action. It's the opposite of doing in the absence of really knowing.
So next time your body aches for a nap, remind yourself it’s a spiritual practice, a business strategy, a ritual that precedes the pathway to receiving. And so, surrender to the natural rhythms of life and allow yourself to receive the gift of rest.
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