The Crucial Balance Between Rest and Action

Your afternoon meeting suddenly gets canceled. You take a look at your to-do list, and start creating tasks to be done - laundry, chores, social media, check your inbox. After all, you can’t just put your legs up and relax in the middle of a workday, right?

But what if you can? What if that is actually the missing piece in the balance, peace, and manifestation that you crave?

Do, Do, Do - that’s what we have been conditioned to believe. But that’s not necessarily the way things work.

Rest

Contrary to popular belief, rest is not just an answer to fatigue. It isn’t a tool to reset after we are overwhelmed, exhausted, and drained of energy.

Rather, it is as integral to the creative process as productivity is. It acts as a cornerstone in the receiving process.

Rest is vital not only to survive, but also to thrive.

Society’s conditioning

Unfortunately, society has programmed us to celebrate only one side of the equation: the action. Hard work is honored. Sacrificing rest and being busy is worn as a badge of honor.

We’ve been conditioned to believe that rest is weak and action is powerful. We’ve been conditioned to view rest as a response to exhaustion and overwhelm. We throw the term around “I’ll sleep when I’m dead”.

Think about the number of times people are celebrated for skipping vacations, for working late, and for sleeping less.

However, when have you heard someone proudly talk about the time they took off or the time they rested?

The problem is, this constant masculine energy has created a dangerous imbalance.

Balance

A key component of the workings of life, energy, and even science, is balance. Without balance, things fall apart.

Just like yin and yang, sun and moon, the masculine and feminine, rest and action create a balance. Both are integral to the creation of life, equally valuable. Without rest, action will only take you so far. Ask, and receive.

If you are in a constant state of output, you aren’t leaving any space for input. If you just do, do, do, there is no space for receiving.

So, don’t just reach for rest when you’re tired. Instead, reach for it when you’re stuck, when action has run its course. Reach for it with the knowledge that it is the next right ‘action’ and it is part of the ‘productive’ strategy.

How can you integrate more rest into your creative process?