Many of the folks I speak with these days share that they're tired. The past few years have been difficult for most of us—there seem to be too many hardships to even name them all. The latest spate of shootings here in the US have only added to the collective grief and exhaustion.

When we're tired—physically or emotionally—the most natural thing in the world to do is to rest.

Yet the currents of society pull us towards keeping busy. There’s a reason there’s a coffee shop on nearly every corner of every city in the Global North. We can be addicted to busyness for different reasons, from trying to distract ourselves from painful feelings to being entranced by the illusory promise of something to make us feel better at the end of a to-do list. 

I’ve been meditating since I was 19 and have seen many transformative benefits in my life. Yet over all these years, I periodically slide back into the old habit of staying busy. If I’m not attentive, I can end up packing my days full, driven by a kind of restless, agitated energy just below the surface. 

As a kid, when my immediate family was turned upside down by mental illness, I learned to cope by keeping busy. If I moved quickly enough and stayed focused on school, extra-curricular activities, and my aspirations as a childhood actor, I could avoid feeling the storm of emotions deep inside. 

The busyness was fed by the messages I received from the world around me. As a young, Jewish, white male, people encouraged and expected me to excel. I was praised for my grades, and relished the attention I won through my performance—whether it was as an over-achieving straight-A student, or on the stage or film set.

Today, service and work are ongoing. Life is an open-ended invitation to contribute, and there’s no shortage of opportunities to help. But if we don’t balance the energy we put into doing with time and space to relish simply being, we can burnout. 

In a society addicted to busyness, taking time to rest is radical.

We needn’t look far to recall the value of rest. Everything in nature reminds us of the importance of complete cycles: the sun rises and sets; the tides advance and recede as the moon waxes and wanes; life itself expands and contracts as the seasons come and go. 

So how do we step outside the frenzy of activity and begin to reclaim our right to rest? 

While rest begins with the simple yet powerful practice of respecting our body and doing things like taking breaks and literally getting enough sleep, rest is also about so much more. It is about our capacity to slow down and receive nourishment, to stop and appreciate when a task is complete, and ultimately to touch our own innate value, dignity and self-worth as creatures on this planet.

Life may not always offer the conditions to rest in the ways we long for. A nap or afternoon in the park would be delightful, but raising kids, working two jobs, caregiving for others compete for our time and energy. Nonetheless, we can all learn to touch the stillness of being for even short moments.

Our breath can teach us how simple and natural it is to rest: the body breathes in, receiving vitality. The body breathes out, releasing and letting go. 

What's it like to pause and rest for even one breath?

What helps you to slow down and rest?

If you’d like to explore this theme more, join me this Wednesday for an online session via Cambridge Insight. Details and other upcoming classes are here. 

Warm wishes,

Oren

––––––

Feel free to share this email

If you like what you've read, forward this to a friend.