This Is What Rest REALLY Means, Because It’s Not Just Naps And Spa Days

You can’t remember the last time you slept for eight hours.

You can’t remember the last time you slept for six hours.

You can’t remember the last time you went about the day feeling energized and hopeful and joyful. Depleted has become your status quo and your way of being — and you deserve so much more than that.

You deserve to rest.

When your bones are tired and your heart is weary and you feel like you couldn’t possibly stand for another moment, I hope you sit down. I hope you breathe. I hope you shut your eyes for a moment.

I hope you let yourself rest.

Rest isn’t always about taking a bubble bath. It’s not always about taking a nap, either. It’s not always having a weekend at the spa or a night out with girlfriends or an evening on the couch, uninterrupted, watching Netflix. Can rest look like that? Sure. Does it always look like that for a person? No.

Baths, spas, naps, weekend getaways, and uninterrupted time are a luxury for many.

And for some, they’re just not feasible.

But here’s the thing: Just because you can’t have that bath, that spa time, or that weekend away doesn’t mean that you’re not allowed to rest.

The fancy things are just fluff. That’s the packaging the rest comes in.

Real respite happens in moments of silence. The time when you can sit, if only for 10 minutes, and be still.

Sometimes rest looks like silent prayers in the morning before you get up out of bed.

Sometimes rest is moments of meditation as you take your lunch break in your car.

Sometimes rest is getting up earlier to watch the glow of the sunrise.

Sometimes rest is being on the couch with your spouse without simultaneously scrolling through your phones.

Sometimes it’s dinners with long conversations. Sometimes it’s taking that cat nap on a Saturday afternoon instead of going out to one of the three social engagements you’ve been asked to attend. Sometimes it’s going for a walk around the neighborhood with nothing other than your own thoughts.

Sometimes your moment of rest is something else.

Maybe your moment of rest is getting up in the morning before the kids are awake, if only to have your cup of coffee in peace. Perhaps your moment of rest is looking at the white space of your calendar and feeling a bit of glee that you have an entire Saturday to spend at home. Maybe your moment of rest is an afternoon at home with your family, playing board games and watching movies until it’s time for dinner.

Perhaps your moment of rest is calling your parents or your sibling or your best friend on the way to work instead of listening to your new favorite podcast or audiobook or Spotify playlist. Maybe that phone call will give you the energy you need to get through the drive.

Maybe your moment of rest is writing down what you’re grateful for in your journal. Perhaps those five minutes of putting pen to paper will provide you the clarity to breathe a bit easier. Maybe writing everything down will make life a bit brighter, too.

Maybe your moment of rest comes from lying in bed next to the one you love, feeling the weight of their body against yours and the overwhelming gratitude that comes with the knowledge that your best friend and soulmate and forever love is wrapped up in one human.

Maybe.

Whatever your rest looks like, I hope you take it.

I hope you take the seconds and see how much lighter you feel. And then I hope you take the minutes and the hours that you need.

And then I hope you dare to be so bold as to take an entire day.

You deserve it.