What if?— A long winter’s Nap?
Last week I experienced a period of unscheduled rest. While I went into it kicking and screaming, by the end I embraced it, and it made me wonder— what if it's okay to rest? Actually, what if it's not just okay but optimal to rest? What if resting gets us to where we want to be quicker?
I know that your first thought is, “What do you mean? Of course it’s ok! Everybody knows that we all need to rest…”. But do we really? We say that, but our actions don’t reflect that. I feel like everyone is always go, go, going. And even when we take a “vacation”— how many times have you felt like you needed a vacation from your vacation? I know I feel like that almost every time! Because we are so busy in our everyday, we rarely get a chance to get away and when we do, we try to jam pack as much into that time as possible. It’s exhausting just thinking about it!
We're living in a world that just keeps getting faster and faster! If I didn't already feel it, all I’d have to do is watch a movie from the ‘80s and see just how slow it feels compared to what we are accustomed to now. It would be not only slower, but quieter…with more space between the dialogue. Still enjoyable, but I definitely notice the lag.
The increasing speeds are increasing the demands on us. And we constantly hear phrases like “snooze you lose,” “day late, dollar short,” and “you don’t want to miss the boat!” It's no wonder anxiety is rising! But what if what we really need is to stop for a moment, to pause, to rest?
I've been playing around with the concept of time, and using it more as a tool instead of being a slave to it. I had an epiphany around this about a year ago and part of it was a realization that the way to stretch time is to be present— in the now— since that is when everything is actually happening.
At the time I was going through a busy period at work, and I realized that I was having some anxiety throughout my day while racing to get everything done. When this came to me, I started putting it into practice– taking pauses to gather myself, slowing down and focusing into the now. I found that I not only got more work done, but I did it in a relaxed manner without all the stress and anxiety I was experiencing before! But, even with this knowing it is so easy to slide back into the rat race. And if you're not mindful, sometimes your body will find it necessary to create a pause for you. Hence my last week.
I'm pretty sure my body was just doing some detoxing, and I figured I could handle that and still go about my usual routine, but my body felt otherwise! And because I am so resistant to calling out of work, each morning my body had to put me through the ringer to get me to make the call. But once the call was done things eased up fairly quickly and I was able to rest. This happened Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. By Saturday I gave in and didn't resist. Sunday, I felt better but decided to give it one more day of rest before heading back to work on Monday.
It is healthy for our bodies to rest and enter the “rest and digest” phase as opposed to being in “fight or flight” all of the time. We were not designed to live in “fight or flight” that should only happen in short bursts! Yet that is where many of us live. When we rest, our bodies are able to process and digest everything that has been happening. It also gives them a chance to repair and rejuvenate! When we rest our mind, we are able to experience the quiet and make space for new ideas or guidance to flow in. After my rest, I am experiencing a greater sense of clarity, not to mention peace.
When your body forces you to slow down this way, you actually get to a deeper rest that we generally allow ourselves to get to when we are well. When was the last time that you rested in a waking state without consuming anything—no tv, no books, no thoughts of what you are going to do later? I got there for the first time in a really long time last week because I just didn’t have the energy to do any of that…and you know what? It was actually really nice to just sit there in the stillness, in the quiet for a while.
Eventually, I returned to a thinking state…maybe more of a pondering. A gentler, less rushed type of thinking. And it was like there was enough space that a bunch of little loose ends and snippets of thought that had been crammed in my head over the last few months could just relax and saunter around until they found their way into coherent groupings—complete thoughts! Clear thoughts!
And then I thought, “Wow! I should do this more often, deliberately, without having to be forced into it by my body!” In fact, I believe that just doing this regularly would go a long way towards keeping our bodies healthy, as they would be able to use the downtime to repair and restore on a regular basis. Kinda like getting your car’s oil changed and having it maintenanced on a regular basis to avoid long and costly stays in the repair shop.
It was actually while contemplating all of this that I had a paradigm shift on the topic of pausing that might be the biggest thing behind this ‘what if’! You see I’ve got my fingers in a lot of different pots right now, and they keep me really busy. Also, I have been really focusing on being led through… everything really— and I am actually getting much better at it. (I think if you spoke with my Angels about it they would tell you that I am very much improved, but still have a ways to go…lol) However, sometimes being led looks very sporadic; I might be inspired to work on my website, for example, and get a big chunk of it done, but before I can complete it, I am inspired to go work on another project. If I had time to think about it, I might second guess the decision, but it’s a bit like juggling, if I stop to look back the pin drops!
I was starting to feel a little bad about it, or maybe frustrated is a better word, feeling like I was not finishing anything. But then I started to notice some patterns… Something would happen later, spontaneously, that was just what I needed for the next step in that paused project! Now, all of the sudden the pause made sense…it was truly a pause for a cause!
That awareness is making it easier to be led, that’s for sure ;) So, having already made this observation, here is the shift… what if taking the pauses not only makes life more enjoyable, but what if it really does get you to where you are going quicker? For instance, I could have either pushed through one of those pauses and struggled, whilst doing a lot of uninspired work, just to come up with something that wasn’t quite right until suddenly that perfect next step showed up to save the day, or my labor could have taken me down another path entirely, where I didn’t meet that perfect next step and instead I met an average old step, followed by who knows what before I reached my destination—or not…
The first scenario, looking from a higher perspective, gets me to the same place as I did with the pause, just with a lot more effort and wasted time—I got a lot of other stuff done during that pause—the second, maybe is a road to nowhere or a mediocre end, or maybe it eventually winds back around to the perfect step much later. Being led really is the path of least resistance! Then also, what if it has nothing to do with roadblocks and breadcrumbs and it is really just a race to the finish?
Well, since we don’t know the future and what time that figurative ship is set to sail…what if all this hurrying, racing, and stressing all along the way really just gets you there super early? Like really early— like your saying, “I did all of the steps to manifest what I want perfectly and quickly, so where’s my stuff?” and now you just have to wait.
Yet, if you had taken your time, stopped to smell the roses, soaked in the pauses, and had more fun along the way, you would have arrived just as your ship pulled into to port—in fact, it was super exciting watching it pull in, anticipating all the fun you were going to have onboard!
It really put Abraham-Hicks’ teachings in a different perspective for me. This is what they have been saying all along…the Joy is in the journey! And then the step onto that ship is the next logical step and it is like having an instant manifestation because you didn't race to the finish and have to wait around for it. HA! I hope you got that like I did!
So next time you find yourself in a hurry, maybe your next best step will be to pause for a moment, allow your thoughts to reorder themselves in a more coherent way, and then be led! Have you had any life changing pauses lately?
