'It's safe for me to rest'
Self-belief Journalling :: February 2025
Whenever I ask someone about their relationship with rest, I never quite know where our conversation will go, but it’s almost always super revealing.
The idea of rest feels itchy; I’m just waiting for someone to call me ‘lazy’.
I say I’m resting, but I think I might actually be hiding.
I need six weeks and a cabin in the woods away from everything and everyone. THEN I’ll be able to rest.
If I stopped for Proper Rest, I’m not sure I would trust myself to start again.
Being more successful means working harder, way less rest, and eventually: burnout.
Rest would be AMAZING, but if I don’t do this, who will?
It’s completely fundamental to being alive, but most of us have a pretty complicated relationship with rest. It can be tricky to talk about it without bringing in stories about productivity and capacity, indulgence and worthiness.
I suspect most of us would love to follow a more rhythmic relationship with rest, following natural cycles and seasons and paying attention to our energy, capacity and needs. But we have responsibilities, obligations, and ambitions. Capitalism is utterly dependent on our continuous productivity. Our people and furs need us (maybe you are reading this on a break from meal prep for the week, creating a dragon costume for the youngest, or finishing that report for work?). There are The Endless Distractions. All of this before we get to our own beliefs about rest! Ironically, just chatting about rest can actually be bloody tiring.
Yep, rest: it’s a party, right?!
All to say, I am fascinated to see what comes up for us as we explore rest for our first experience of Self-belief Journalling.
We’ll start with a psychological concept that is super helpful for understanding the connection between our relationship with rest and self-doubt. Then, we’ll dive into some journal prompts and experiments. So fun!