If you had said to me that Rest is Work a year or two ago, I'd have laughed at you and probably not taken anything on the topic from you seriously after this point.
So I, like many others had to hit rock bottom with my health, work and overall well-being before I realised and learned that Rest Is Work for real.
I even had to walk nearly 400km with a massive backpack, in the sun and rain on the pilgrim's path to Santiago de Compostella to actually help myself slow down enough, to be able to see the obvious. Because just like in the dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury ''451° Fahrenheit'' I was speeding so fast in the rat race - that all things outside of work, and I do mean all of it were a blur.
And Rest is Work because...
When you rest, you allow your mind, body and spirit the time to work on recovering from the daily stresses, the weight of the mental load, the built-up tiredness that feels so heavy in your body.
When you rest, you give yourself permission to charge up your ''batteries'' for the next challenge ahead. So you can tackle it with more energy and a clear mind.
It allows time for your mind to wander and play. This increases your creativity, problem-solving abilities, it improves your mood and makes it nice and easier to be around.
Stressed and tired people stress other people out, make more mistakes, are less productive, less creative and have a lower ROI on their time and efforts.
Rested people have more capacity to consider how the world around them is, what they can do to contribute to make it better and feel happier in their day-to-day life.
It allows individuals to come up with ideas, dreams and hopes and not simply stop there, but consider how they can turn those into a reality and thus live a more authentic to their values life.
It allows you to take better care of yourself, your emotional, mental, physical well-being, so that you don't struggle and depend on making it through the day and week on drugs, medical care and therapy.
Rest is work worth doing. I learn it the hard way. After a number of burnouts, I realised each burnout was getting more and more expensive in lost productivity and so many more losses outside of work. My health was out the window, my friends and family barely saw me, I wasn't living life.
And just as Ray Bradbury says in 451° Fahrenheit - knowledge is dangerous, and those who want to control us, pacify us, occupy us with other things to busy ourselves with - don't want us to slow down and see it - see a life in which there's space for rest, well-being and happiness outside of work.
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