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I suspect very few people appreciate how much patience and discipline it takes to rest.
To do nothing.
To allow yourself to be bored.
To let socializing wait.
To ignore your to-do list.
To tell yourself over and over again:
'I am not doing nothing I am resting. Resting IS a verb, and it is the thing I most need to do right now."
#spoonieLife #burnout #restIsAVerb #selfCare
I’d add it pushes back on patriarchy too.
@vlrny Often I think to myself, "Self--rest is a *reward* so you have to get this-and-that-and-the-other-thing done before you can rest a bit," when in fact if I'd just rest when I need it, I'm more productive and happier.
@vlrny I love "rest is a verb". As a doing person who struggles with rest, reframing rest this way is very interesting. Mmmm...
@vlrny i am so so shit at resting, and it's a huge problem.
@moonrabbit @vlrny I am great at resting physically but terrible at resting mentally
@purplepadma @vlrny i'm rubbish at both 
@moonrabbit @purplepadma @vlrny What helped me for that is yoga nidra, which is a kind of meditation. You lie somewhere where you are comfortable, and then you focus on different body parts. You are tecnically doing something, but it's very low energy consuming.
@vlrny To rest is to allow your body to create more energy than it consumes, which is a good thing to do, and everybody needs from time to time.
@vlrny I get a lot of help from samatha meditation. In the tradition I work with (from Thich Nhat Hahn), you go through four stages of breathing. At each stage you focus on one thing for each in and out breath:
Stopping, Calming, Resting, and Healing.
-At the first stage, you think “I am breathing in, I am breathing out.”
-At the second stage, you think “I am breathing deep, I am breathing slow.”
-At the third stage, you think “My body is calm, my body is at ease.”
-At the fourth stage, you think “This is the present moment, this is a wonderful moment.”
I use mala beads to count repetitions, but just thinking in this sequence while breathing in and out really helps me rest.
@oceanic this is really wonderful. Thank you for sharing it. If you haven't come across it before, we have a #sitTogether tag for exactly these lil moments and techniques. Feel free to drop stuff there any time. 
@vlrny Great, I’ll put it there! Thanks 
@vlrny True, although I would argue that "being bored" is different from “resting”, as when you're bored your brain is usually actively trying to find things to do.
@scottishwildcat yes. That's a good point. Being bored for me is in part kinda like sitting on my brain until it figures out how to shut up and just be. So bored on a path towards rest, is maybe better wording.