The One Thing You Really Need

It’s the week after the Fourth of July holiday in the US, and I imagine many of you had a busy week with friends and family.

The time off is invigorating, but I imagine you also might be feeling kind of a letdown.

The one thing you need to do after a holiday or something big is very simple: rest.

But it’s the one thing we avoid because we convince ourselves we need to be busy, productive and doing something social.

This became so clear to me recently when I went to the zoo, two times in one week.  The first time I went it was in the evening and as the sun began to set some of the animals were no longer in view and others were beginning to rest. There were some who were nighttime party animals but for the most part everybody but he seemed to know it was time to get some snooze.

Then I went in the daytime and don’t found it interesting that some animals still sleeping. When they enjoyed periods of activity and then in a quick  second, they were on the ground taking a nap.

Animals do this because it’s what they need. Maybe they are tired of people staring, stressed or just plain hot… whatever the reason they know it’s what they must do and they don’t resist it.

I watched an Ape walking around his territory eating, taking a dip in the water, investigating what the other apes were doing.  Then suddenly he just decided it was time and rolled onto his back, toes up and hands around chest and knocked out!

In fact when I looked at  some of the information cards  it said some of the animals slept 14 hours a day…  rest of the day was spent getting “stuff” done.

It made me think about my clients. The ones who really succeed in moving towards what they want often experience a time of extended rest.

They also follow these four indicators in honoring rest:

They allow themselves to take naps
They start saying no to things in order to give themselves more rest
If it feels draining in any way they don’t do it
They let go of guilt

Feeling like you need a break? Give some rest a try:)

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