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How do you spell REST? I bet you it might be different from the way I spell it and I'm pretty sure I'm probably not spelling it right. And when I'm talking about spelling it, I'm talking about how do you take rest and mental rest in particular because it has its importance. And you know, I'm not sure I figured out the right answer, but I do know some things tend to get in the way and they may be posing as helpful things to me, but I think they may actually be blocking my ability to take a second and recharge. Let's talk about that. And if you may have some of those same things also, we'll get into it.
In this episode, you'll learn...
What happens when we trade efficiency for mental rest
What it looks like to take mental rest
Who owes whom time in the grand scheme of things
More often than not, because I'm on a super huge efficiency kick and you'll know what this is like if you are really hustling hard to make your situation a different one and when you see a vision, for you to get where you are now and to get to your vision, requires a lot of hard work. There are some obstacles in the way, there are some time barriers in the way. Maybe there's a nine to five in the way, but you know that you want to get to some end and it's going to take work for you to get there. Well, what's the place I'm in now? While I know there's a lot of work ahead of me, I spend a lot of time trying to be efficient to get that work done. And the way that shows up is sometimes in draining ways. It's very efficient, no doubt, but sometimes in draining ways.
So, for example, if I know that I have to get a podcast episode out (I'm usually doing my episodes in the morning) and getting better about batching them cause it's a daily podcast. But if I know I need to get it out and I don't have enough time to get it fully edited if I at least have the audio and I happen to be in a car somewhere, so let's say it's the weekend and I'm not driving and I'm in a car and my family's in the car. True to life stories. Okay. I will have my headphones in one ear leave the other one free so that I can hear a conversation in the car and try to do any last-minute edits and listen to and add the description and all this other stuff to try to get it done, get to my destination, get out, proceed with my day.
Now what may happen is an hour or two later, get back in the car, the same people. And for me, I'm thinking, "Oh great, this is an opportunity for me to catch up on social media." And for me, catching up on social media does not mean scrolling to be involved in everybody's business. It's not. Social media is a core part of my business. So I want to check back and see if there are any comments that I need to respond to or anybody reached out to me that I need to follow back up with or anything like that. So I'm figuring I'm in the car, the car is moving, the phone's in my hand, I don't have to drive. I might as well get these things done. So fast forward, I now get to my destination and let's say my destination is home. I have this ever ticking clock that I don't have much time. There are some things that I need to get done. I'm going to get these things done first so that I can go and play and do whatever else later.
So I walk into the house and I started my very efficient ways. Perhaps somebody wants to watch a movie. Sure, let's watch a movie and I can bring out my laptop and I can work on this post or this piece of content while I'm sort of, but not really watching the movie. If you see any pattern here, the idea of my efficiency is a good one. You maximize time wherever you can. But where is the rest? And when I say the rest, where is that mental rest? I'd started and still am. I haven't figured this, this problem out, but starting to lose the mental recipes, the take a break.
I can't tell you how many times I've heard that one comes from my husband, "Take a break, take a break, go do this. Come watch this movie. Let's do this. Take a break and come back to it." So when we talk about breaks and mental rest, I'm going to say this, I know firsthand it is not easy when the work that you are doing doesn't feel like work. When it's something that you enjoy and you know that you need to do it to get you to the next step in your journey. But I will tell you this, if we don't take the mental rest, we could end up in a burnout situation. And when we're in a burnout situation, it's not good for us. It's not good for our family. You know, it's not good for any of those that are around us and in a loving circle. And so we've gotta be very careful to protect our minds, protect our sanity, protect even our time. And when I say our time, remember our time, especially if you are a mom, you are a wife. Your time is shared. It's not just about you.
Again, I am saying this to you as I am saying it to myself. It is not just about you. So when we talk about being efficient with our time, we can't lose track of the fact that some of that time is owed as a mother, is owed as a wife. And that's the time that can't be touched. So if you think about all these different pieces and components that we are, we are juggling from a time perspective and the drain that it takes on our mind and the rest that we need. Even if we don't sleep a certain amount of hours every night, we get tired, right? We fall into sickness. We do all these things.
The same thing is true. If we don't take that break from our work to refresh ourselves or to give our section of the time that is owed as a mom, as a wife, we're going to be no good. So since we want to be the best of the best of the best of ourselves, let's think about mental rest. And for you, think about what mental rest feels like and looks like for you. Cause it could be different than what it looks and feels like for me, but you've got to think about it and you've got to be conscious and intentional with this. You need it.
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