We’ve been writing a lot about fitness and exercise lately in the blog. And, as one of the co-founders of the company, I think that those are important pursuits. I personally take a lot of enjoyment from my own fitness routine. But I think that focusing only on the fitness aspect can lead to imbalance. That’s because I think that being able to rest – both in fitness and in life – is a crucial step that is often overlooked when people talk about fitness. What I really want to tell you in this blog is that taking breaks and having time to rest, recover, and recharge from everything that life throws at you is ok. I know that might not be something that you hear a lot from fitness companies, but it’s ok to just stop and take time when you need it. And sometimes, you just need it – physically, emotionally, or spiritually. Often, you even come away better for it and make more improvement on your goals than if you just stuck it out. So, for this week, let’s take a quick break and talk about rest.

I know that as a personal development and fitness company we talk a lot about achieving our goals. I think that in much of the fitness sphere there is also a push to get those gains, to push your limits, and to be consistent in your practice. For the most part, these are good things to keep in mind. Who doesn’t want to achieve their goals? Who doesn’t want to be consistent in a healthy practice? But, sometimes, especially with goals that involve exercise, these ideas can lead us to go to unhealthy lengths in pursuit of getting that perfect body, lifting more, or running farther. 

We’ve all seen training montages in the movies – someone struggles heroically to overcome their obstacles, working tirelessly to become the greatest. They make for moving scenes and we can often relate to it because it’s natural that we all want to be the champion (or at least try our best) in the pursuits that are meaningful to us too. But, I think that maybe trying to doggedly pursue a goal can lead us to some unhealthy ideas about effort. And while, yes, pushing yourself to grow and improve helps bring great satisfaction and meaning to life, what these montages don’t show enough is the self-care and recovery that is also a part of the cycle. It is possible to overdo it. From high intensity exercising to stretching, it is possible to hurt yourself if you push too much. Even if you are doing everything right, the very nature of getting stronger means that you have to break yourself down to build yourself up. There’ll be times when you are sore, when your joints ache, when you get blisters, cuts, and bruises. And that is perfectly normal – even in life outside of exercise when you push your boundaries and try new things. But it is during those times when you need to make time to rest. Including breaks in your exercise routines gives your body a chance to repair itself and create new muscle fibers that will make you stronger or more flexible. On the physical level, times of rest are important because that is when you get stronger. Rest is needed to grow.

Aside from giving our bodies a chance to repair themselves and relieve feelings of being achy or sore (which in itself will probably help to make you feel better), taking breaks gives us a chance to recharge mentally as well. Trying to push through everything that is thrown at us day after day can leave us feeling weary, run down, and burnt out. But taking breaks, (even short ones) can help us to recharge, get our bearings, and get back out there. Taking a break can help us to feel refreshed and give us more energy and clarity. It allows us to reset back to a more stable position from which to think which can lead to greater feelings of creativity, can help us with problem solving, or can give us the time and space we need to digest what exactly is going on. This can lead us to a greater understanding of our feelings, our thoughts, and our stressors which can then also be further explored to give us greater insight into ourselves. Much like how we build muscles when we get a chance to rest them, on the mental side we also get a chance to build understanding of obstacles, our feelings, and ourselves when we rest.

And yet, even with all the benefits rest offers, I think that it’s still overlooked. Maybe it’s just not fun and exciting enough, especially compared to the experiences we go through as we build ourselves and build our skills. I mean, when we rest we’re just sitting there, right? Don’t we already do that enough?  Possibly. And if that’s the case maybe we should try to work more movement into our daily lives. But I think rest can take many forms. It doesn’t have to be a complete shutoff of all the neat and exciting things you do. It just means that we shouldn’t feel this expectation that we need to be doing something all the time without also budgeting in time to take care of ourselves – which might even include trying something new. 

Rest could mean that instead of running when you have knee pain maybe you take the day to do some other kind of exercise like swimming or yoga. This kind of rest ultimately helps you stay healthy and prevent injury. Separately, rest could mean that you give your mind a chance to explore new works of art at a museum you haven’t been to or reading a completely different genre than you normally might. This kind of rest gives you a chance to explore new ideas and experience and learn new things. Rest can even be just taking a moment to take a breath, stand up, and look out the window in between projects. 

I think rest gets a bad rap because people think that it means being idle.  And they fear that if they stay that way for too long that they’ll miss their chance to achieve their goals. But I think we should consider rest as an opportunity. It gives us space to step away from our normal routines and explore something new – whether that newness is in the form of our feelings that we might not have been aware of, new places, new experiences, or even ideas on how to improve our normal routine. Needing rest is natural. And I think that if used well, rest actually makes us better. I think that ultimately, rest gives an opportunity to be more fulfilled in life as we break away from our regularly scheduled habits. Then, after we rest and return to pursuing our goals, we can approach them with new energy, new experiences, and potentially even a new outlook on life.