Rest Easy

How do you feel about rest? Consider it a waste of time? Resist when there is so much to do?  Maybe even see it as weak or inconsequential?

Yes, doing more has always been valued more than doing less. What do you have to show for it, after all? I turn to social scientist Alex Soojung-Kim Pang and poet David Whyte for their different takes on why rest is both natural and invaluable. And I submit that yoga is just the practice to seek rest.

Soojung-Kim Pang says rest requires reframing. It is not the opposite of work but its companion. The ancients understood this balance. Many scientists, CEOs, artists, Buddhist monks understand this. Elite athletes with their intensive training understand the need for recovery. We all need to harness the power of rest.

Rest is not lying on a couch scrolling on your phone. Rest is active – exercise, hobbies, play.

Rest is natural but often requires practice to build the skills.

Rest is social. Pursuing rest with others – an unforgettable cycling trip with old and new friends – integrates rest into your life.

Poet David Whyte takes a different tact.

Rest gives up on our exhausted will[power] to reach targeted goals.

Rest gives up on “worrying and fretting and the sense that there is something wrong with the world unless we are there to put it right.”

Rest seeks the inner state of giving and receiving of the breath underlying all life.

Resting deeply is a profound, often disguised need not to procrastinate but “reconstitute or reimagine our approach.”  You may have noticed that I took an extended rest from writing. I’ll view the time spent as my deeply disguised need to rest and receive.

My yoga classes prioritize rest. On good days we come together, set aside the world’s worries at least for a while, rest in the awareness of our breath, and go forth renewed. Come join us.

• Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words, David Whyte

• Rest : why you get more done when you work less, Alex Soojung-Kim Pang