Why am I so tired? I need rest. Part 2 - Change of mindset. Give your body rest even when completely healthy and energized!

Part 1 of this blog is short, and HERE if you want to read it.

Have you ever considered that it could be better to think of yourself as a healthy person caring for your gift of a body, even if you are needing exponentially more rest than you think is normal, or than is normal? Because your body is listening to all your beliefs, and if you keep thinking everything is because you are broken or sick, or special in some way along those lines, then you are teaching your body that it doesn’t deserve rest if it is healthy. You are saying, without consciously meaning to, that healthy people don’t deserve rest. Your body is listening, and it knows it has to make certain noises, or a certain volume of noise to get your attention to care for it. Your body would never want to be in the category of fully healthy, or it would never get rest, and it knows it. You are teaching your body that the only reason you are allowed to rest is because you are having symptoms, or sensations, or because you are sick.

This mind set is not sustaining, and it will cause you to yo-yo. We all require rest. It may be more obvious that we all require sleep, but we also require rest. Sleep we need, I also believe we need to devalue sleep so that we don’t decide if we didn’t get sleep, we are going to be sick, but that’s another discussion. To sum it up, let’s stop making so many stories. But back to the topic at hand. I am not talking about sleep (necessarily). We also just need moments of rest. Even in the activities of daily life.

I want to share a short story here that I think will help. I was in a continuing education class for Physical Therapy, a couple years after I graduated, as a lab assistant. The other lab assistant was the picture of health (I was not, but that’s not for this story). He was asked to be the person for the teacher to demonstrate on. He went up and laid on the treatment table, and then the teacher realized he had some more to share and just told the lab assistant to relax. It was probably 5 minutes that he laid there, relaxed. When he came back to where I was sitting, he started telling me that he felt completely refreshed. That day he said he had already felt great, he had energy, no problems, etc. However, after that 5-minutes of laying down, in the middle of a busy day, he felt so refreshed. He talked about it for a bit, and admitted that he didn’t remember the last time he just laid down and rested his body and got out of gravity when it wasn’t because something was wrong, or at least felt a need for rest. He was convicted that he should do that on a regular basis. To simply care for his body and rest, even when everything felt fine. He was thrilled, and clearly rejuvenated.

Most of us, including this Physical Therapist lab assistant, had always thought that you lay down in the middle of the day, only when you are really too tired to go on, or when you are old, or sick, etc. Not when you were feeling great and busy. He felt so renewed and refreshed and wondered why we don’t all do this regularly.

This all happened many years ago, but it keeps coming to mind as I teach somatics, and people reach out to me, concerned with the amount they are having to rest. I remember at the time of this story, since I was laying in the Physical Therapy continuing education class every second that I didn’t truly have to be upright, I thought about what a privilege he had. Getting to lay down by choice. But what a thing that we get to do, all of us! I love spending time laying in bed and reading now. I have a holder for my tablet that a friend found for me, when I was desperate to have a way to not just stare at the ceiling. Actually, I had a home-made version before that, with her help. But this one was so much better. I always envisioned that when I no longer “needed” it, it would be out of my house so fast. It was associated with sickness, and I didn’t want it. Thankfully I learned about caring for my body from God on my journey, and kept it. It is now this thing that I love. I don’t associate it with sickness at all anymore. God helped me with that. I associate it with connecting with friends on zoom, with the word of God, with gentle self-care, and almost this feeling of spoiling my body. Seriously, I get to lay in bed sometimes on calls. It is awesome, and my kitties love it too. Some of you know I currently lead live zoom sessions I call Praising Through God’s Word that way. I really love praying laying down or walking. It’s not reasonable to walk and lead, but it does work to lay and lead from 2 devices. It is a little gift to myself that I get to do it that way, and I love it. I don’t know that I’ll keep doing that forever, there can be some limitations as well, but I will continue to lay down some of the time when I read God’s word, or do somatics on my own, or self-lymph massage, etc. I will also do all of those things sitting or standing. But it is a privilege that I can lay down sometimes too.

How about we just need rest, no excuses necessary. Again, I’m not talking about sleep here (rest can include sleep, but I’m not discussing that particularly today). We need care. We need pausing, slowing down. Even if you pause and take a single slower breath with longer exhale, that is rest. Good job. Not because you absolutely needed it in that moment. I mean sure, do it then too, of course. But also do it, just because. Teach your body that you care for it, even if it doesn’t scream, and it won’t have to.

Often your body is trying to communicate gently that it would like some rest. Sometimes you get to communicate back, and say I hear you, but we will rest in 5 minutes. If you have taught your body to trust you, that works great. Just like swimming in the cold water, my body says – I’m cold, we are going to die, you have to get out! – and I gently tell it I am okay, and we can go further, but we will get out at a certain point and warm up. However, when we are talking simple rest, if your body is gently communicating that it would like rest, can you notice that you are rushing perhaps, or maybe you are just tightening your jaw, or some muscle group in your body, and that muscle group needs rest. So, body scan. Notice.

If you wait until the sensations from your body are strongly yelling it needs rest, and then, in a victim mindset you just absolutely have to rest, and I have to set everybody and everything else aside, you are teaching that pattern. How about instead you believe you have an amazing gift of a body, and you get to care for it. And you get to respond to subtle cues to rest with a shift in thought or body, a pause, a 1-minute laydown, or perhaps more. Sometimes it is just relaxing, letting the word of God uphold you. Jesus’ yoke is easy and His burden is light, but we have to allow that, we have to choose to abide with Him. We get to notice that we are not resting or abiding in Him fully (spirit, soul, and body), and release that burden to Him because He cares for us.

If we start caring for our body, without it screaming, then it will learn to trust us, and learn that it doesn’t need to scream so loud. Let’s start having a practice of body scanning, and noticing that you can relax more, or pause and breathe, and be present, and let the word of God uphold you. You may be physically running as you do this. There is nothing wrong with running. But you can do it from a place of rushing or a place of rest. How much can you let your body be upheld by God. Tune into your body, give it permission to relax. Not because something is wrong, but just because. Of course, you can also care for it when something is wrong, but start changing that narrative. Be present, even if you have to get through an activity really quickly. Be present and rest in Christ. He upholds you. But only if you let Him. He never forces anything! What a great way to live. Resting!