Before diagnosis, I was sometimes annoyed by tiredness. In my head, I occasionally equated fatigue with laziness. At times exhaustion left me feeling apathetic. Other times it drew me down into hopelessness.
Our culture despises fatigue. It abhors idleness. This rejection of a natural part of our bodies’ rhythms has caused most diseases we see today. Deep in our brain stems, the urgency and impatience we feel today was influenced by the panic of our ancestors.
Imagine what they must have felt when escaping war or running for safety or urgently hunting for food or work in times of hardship. You may have memories of such experiences in your lifetimes or maybe you are aware of your parents or grandparents going through such things.
The physiological experience of panic or urgency influences thoughts directly.
We have each inherited the set point of our nervous systems from our mother and fathers and those before them. We have also inherited thoughts from the experiences and habits of our parents and grandparents. These thoughts may say things such as;
“I must keep going’
“I have to get this done NOW’
“Be quick about it.”
'There's so much more to do."
“There’s no time for rest.”
There are countless variations on these themes.
Our societies avoidance or even hatred of rest, a natural part of our bodies’ cycles, has also been influenced by urbanization and industrial revolution.
Woven in with the concept that ‘more’ and ‘faster’ equates to better, are numerous messages we have learned to live by which have wreaked havoc on our health.
Our bodies work best when aligned with the natural world. Nature operates in cycles. She moves from the seed of an idea or need, to the embryo. If conditions are just right, the seed germinates, opens, grow roots and seeks light.
Strong roots nourished by light, water and oxygen are needed for the seed to emerge from the soil and become a sprout. Having enough rest is integral to rooting. This helps us to grow. This helps new cells to regenerate.
Having enough rest supports the development of the strength required for the seed of our vitality to crack and open.
For the seed of our optimal health or creative ideas to thrive and come to LIFE, there must be adequate roots. The darkness of the soil that encloses the seed and offers the ground for rooting is a metaphor for the rest and grounding necessary for something new to open in our lives.
It is required for creativity.
If the seed of creation survives this stage and fights its way through the rock and soil, it unfurls into the natural world through its instinct of reaching for the light.
Our very first experience of ground and roots is in the womb of our mother. This is where we acquired the baseline of our nervous system and even acquired ideas and beliefs and experiences of our parents and ancestors. When in the womb, each of us moved through periods of activity and periods of rest. Rest and activity were equally important for our growth potential. In very stressful environments, infants and children do not grow as rapidly and neural connectivity is hindered.
As adults in this particular culture we have been trained to believe that to produce and be active is more valuable than to rest.
The judgements and disdain for rest has resulted in our periods of sleep becoming shorter over recent decades. For many, sleep is plagued by intense mental activity that interferes with regenerative rest. For others, rest is bound by guilt and ideas of time wasted. This way of thinking is a sickness in itself.
For thriving beyond any diagnosis and to prevent physical and emotional health challenges, it is crucial to understand your personal relationship with rest and where your ideas about this have come from.
When we understand our physiological and mental patterns related to activity and rest, we will more deeply understand the creation of stress and imbalance in our bodies. Though some positive stress is necessary in periods of activity and creativity, destructive stress has become so commonplace in this culture that it is expected and passed off as ‘just the way things are.’
Lack of rest has become almost laughable as we reach for the next hit of caffeine to keep going or use sedating food or drink in the evenings to allow us to ‘rest.’
Excerpt from my book "The Revolutionary Heart"
** With more ease and grace than you can imagine, you can shift a pattern that hasn't been supporting your health or joy. If more vitality, freedom and joy appeals to you, book a consultation. A new chapter can start today.**
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