When was the last time your just laid back and rested? Not sat on the coach phone scrolling or binge watching a tv show. When was the last time you simply rested?

For most of us, that hasn’t happened recently. According to professional speaker and author Shola Richards, that is a big problem.

In a recent article on his Substack called, The Radical Act of Rest, he outlines why deliberate rest is fundamental to our well-being. He starts by disputing the idea that rest must be earned only after all other chores and tasks are accomplished.

“I mean, you don’t earn the right to drink water, do you? You don’t earn the right to use the restroom either. Rest is literally in the same category. We need to stop thinking of rest as reward for being productive. More accurately, rest is a fundamental biological need that makes productivity possible.“

After shattering the earned rest myth, Shola goes on to define the different types of rest that we need.

1. Physical rest: This is the most obvious one (night time sleep, power naps, and allowing your body to take a break).
2. Mental rest: Time where your brain is not solving problems, processing information, consuming content, or generating output.
3. Emotional rest: Time away from managing anyone’s feelings, problems or drama (and yes, this one is especially tough for parents of young kids).

In order to put this idea into practice, Shola outlines ways to bring more rest into your life. Even as he does so, he still acknowledges that we are fighting old ways of thought by doing so.

Choosing to intentionally rest can be really hard (at least, it was initially for me), because it requires us to override years of programming that taught us that our worth is conditional on our productivity.

To learn more about the benefits of rest and how to incorporate them into your daily routine, please read the rest of his article.

Now if you’ll forgive me, I’ll be taking a nap.