In Search of Rest
I realise a lot of people look at me as somewhat lazy. However, this isn’t the case, its just I’ve learnt what works for me as a freelancer and my thing is I don’t like mornings in general to do work. Morning for me are to ‘warm up the engine’ for the rest of the day. It doesn’t mean I don’t do essentials, pay bills, housekeeping, make important phone calls etc. It just means the thing that I produce happens after lunch. I’ve also lived 20 + years of 9–5 work as well and it crushed me.
Also, since I’ve had my mental health go down the tubes I’ve learnt to rest a lot more. Even now, its still really hard to actually wind down the energy and do less than work especially in the life of a freelancer, time is money. However, rest is actually just as important for health and to use another corny cliche line: health is wealth.
It initially started with me learning to meditate. Initially when my mental health was in a worse state, I struggled with it initially because I bought into the idea of ‘empty your mind’ rather than acknowledging the noise and focusing on creating space in your mind instead. Eventually I understood how meditation can be used in different ways, the biggest example being exercise or what I do personally: lift weights.
Also because I’m lifting weights three times a week, I have little choice but to learn to recover effectively. I still have weeks where I have to catch up on sleep on Saturdays, eat too much rubbish food or have terrible weeks physically and mentally. However, I keep trying to find space to unwind and do something other than work, like play a video game or go see friends and partners.
I know there are times where its easy to burn the candle at both ends, but rest is something we all need especially for people of colour…but that’s another story….
Until next time, #embraceinfinity and rest well
