How are you all doing? Between a really busy first several weeks of teaching, the mad rush to finish the first draft of my next book, a really wonderful family wedding last weekend, and the horrors of world events, I am absolutely fried. I’m betting some of you all are, too.
So I’ve been thinking about rest. Two springs ago, I taught an upper-level interdisciplinary capstone course around Jenny Odell’s How to do Nothing, and I included this article about the seven types of rest and the assignment to practice one of the forms of rest it describes. (Assigned rest!) What kind of rest would you assign yourself?
For me, so much of my frazzled feeling comes from trying to do too many things at once. Emily Mohn-Slate’s recent
post about doing one thing at a time reminded me of how restorative it is to just single-task. So yesterday, instead of vacuuming and listening to a podcast, or talking on the phone while folding laundry, I just did the one thing. When I walk my kids to and from school, I leave my phone at home, and when I teach, I leave my phone in my office, so that in both cases, I can actually concentrate on where I am. I can’t always reduce the total number of things I have to do or think about—but I can slow down and just do one at a time.
my 10 year old found this praying mantis on the way home from school on Friday—he’s got such a great eye! (I wouldn’t let him bring it inside to be a pet, so we compromised by photographing it.)
What about you? What kind of rest do you most need? How are you practicing rest this weekend?
I usually take a complete sabbath every Saturday. No writing or work-work, no social media or email. (I sometimes shop for things online, and I occasionally do a load of laundry, but that's it.) But two weekends ago, I skipped it. I worked for a few hours. And you know what? It blew my fuse for the whole week! I was unproductive, couldn't write at all, and felt resentful of the schedule I'd made for myself. Since then, I've resumed my Saturday sabbath.
Recently I've been extremely depleted, particularly by sensory overwhelm and emotional labor. Caring for my three young girls has been too much, and I've had to withdraw into my room/office, switching off my emotional radar. It's helped some, but it leaves me pretty disengaged with my family and puts a lot of the burden on my husband. I know I also need more physical "rest," which for me means moving my body more and doing my PT (with an arsenal of lacrosse balls, foam rollers, and other torture devices). It's also imperative for me to get sufficient alone time, which basically never happens between my day job and my familial obligations. But little bits here and there help. It's a constant battle to find the rest I need as an introvert, HSP, writer, entrepreneur, and mom, also working an almost full-time job. But I soldier on!
love this, Nancy! & I'm so happy my post took you to this place of single-tasking —also, I feel deep connection to the "compromise by photographing" when finding creatures or just a ton of stuffies at Target that absolutely cannot come home with us :)
I'm practicing rest this weekend with copious amounts of tea, letting myself off the hook for not getting any grading done, and trying to actually put my feet up and read some pages (not on my phone) xo
What a wonderfully timed post. I just turned in my tenure dossier (including my book!) and am cognizant that I need rest. I love the article you linked to, and I’m pretty sure I’m short on all seven kinds of rest. This probably sounds counterintuitive, but I have had some experience in scheduling in rest during mu work day and for me that helps.
I just love the fact that you taught a course on that book, it's so valuable. I'm getting more rest (or at least time not actively parenting) as my kids get older and more able to entertain themselves, but there still isn't much, if any, rest on weekends. I have a really small capacity for client work and deep work, so I'm just done most days around 2 and try not to schedule anything after that. I have a period of rest every day until the kids start getting home around an hour and a half later. Sometimes I read, sometimes I nap, but lately it's been watching past seasons of Master Chef while playing a block game on my phone. It feels good to turn my brain off but I have recognized recently it's probably not very restful. I also saw somewhere on TikTok that neurodivergent people just need horizontal time every day, and whether it's true or not, it really is true for me and that afternoon rest time is always spent lying down.
Yes I did this yesterday! Instead of gardening while listening to a podcast, I recognised that I was feeling a bit run down and needed to rest instead. I lay on the couch, reading a hard copy book and didn’t have my phone anywhere near me so I couldn’t stop intermittently and check messages. It was great!
I try to do zero goal-oriented activities so just browsing funny TikToks, reading celebrity gossip, finding a frothy romance novel on Kindle Unlimited and ordering delivery. What I need the most is just not having to interact with someone, since I'm a front-line worker and all I do is interact.
I usually take a complete sabbath every Saturday. No writing or work-work, no social media or email. (I sometimes shop for things online, and I occasionally do a load of laundry, but that's it.) But two weekends ago, I skipped it. I worked for a few hours. And you know what? It blew my fuse for the whole week! I was unproductive, couldn't write at all, and felt resentful of the schedule I'd made for myself. Since then, I've resumed my Saturday sabbath.
Recently I've been extremely depleted, particularly by sensory overwhelm and emotional labor. Caring for my three young girls has been too much, and I've had to withdraw into my room/office, switching off my emotional radar. It's helped some, but it leaves me pretty disengaged with my family and puts a lot of the burden on my husband. I know I also need more physical "rest," which for me means moving my body more and doing my PT (with an arsenal of lacrosse balls, foam rollers, and other torture devices). It's also imperative for me to get sufficient alone time, which basically never happens between my day job and my familial obligations. But little bits here and there help. It's a constant battle to find the rest I need as an introvert, HSP, writer, entrepreneur, and mom, also working an almost full-time job. But I soldier on!
love this, Nancy! & I'm so happy my post took you to this place of single-tasking —also, I feel deep connection to the "compromise by photographing" when finding creatures or just a ton of stuffies at Target that absolutely cannot come home with us :)
I'm practicing rest this weekend with copious amounts of tea, letting myself off the hook for not getting any grading done, and trying to actually put my feet up and read some pages (not on my phone) xo
What a wonderfully timed post. I just turned in my tenure dossier (including my book!) and am cognizant that I need rest. I love the article you linked to, and I’m pretty sure I’m short on all seven kinds of rest. This probably sounds counterintuitive, but I have had some experience in scheduling in rest during mu work day and for me that helps.
I just love the fact that you taught a course on that book, it's so valuable. I'm getting more rest (or at least time not actively parenting) as my kids get older and more able to entertain themselves, but there still isn't much, if any, rest on weekends. I have a really small capacity for client work and deep work, so I'm just done most days around 2 and try not to schedule anything after that. I have a period of rest every day until the kids start getting home around an hour and a half later. Sometimes I read, sometimes I nap, but lately it's been watching past seasons of Master Chef while playing a block game on my phone. It feels good to turn my brain off but I have recognized recently it's probably not very restful. I also saw somewhere on TikTok that neurodivergent people just need horizontal time every day, and whether it's true or not, it really is true for me and that afternoon rest time is always spent lying down.
Yes I did this yesterday! Instead of gardening while listening to a podcast, I recognised that I was feeling a bit run down and needed to rest instead. I lay on the couch, reading a hard copy book and didn’t have my phone anywhere near me so I couldn’t stop intermittently and check messages. It was great!
I try to do zero goal-oriented activities so just browsing funny TikToks, reading celebrity gossip, finding a frothy romance novel on Kindle Unlimited and ordering delivery. What I need the most is just not having to interact with someone, since I'm a front-line worker and all I do is interact.