Ep #212: Resting

Hi! Let’s talk about resting.

I love resting, especially after a day of working or even after a day of fun.

I just love taking time for myself to relax and calm myself.

But I know there are some of you out there who don’t enjoy your rest and some who don’t even allow themselves to rest very often.

So today I want to talk with you about why you don’t enjoy it, how you can, and how to allow yourself to do it.

But first, why is rest even important? Why am I even talking about it? And how is this related to binge eating?

Well, first, how many of you eat, or binge after a stressful or busy day?

After a day like that, you are craving rest, relaxation, and calmness. Your brain and body want a balance between work and rest.

Work is important. We work at our jobs to survive. We work our bodies to keep them strong and to have optimal physical, and mental health. We work in other ways too like doing personal development, taking care of life stuff like errands and chores, and other things to have our best lives

But we can’t be working all the time. It’s just not good for our brains and our bodies. They’ll get tired, maybe even sick and we see time and time again how overworking leads to burn out.

So there’s gotta be a balance between work and rest. If you don’t create that balance, there will be consequences and those might be that you aren’t able to perform at your highest level in your work, whatever work that may be, or that you become sick, injured, or depleted of energy and can’t perform at all.

We are not meant to be working 100% of the time when we’re not sleeping. But somehow, at some point, that is a message that has been passed on to a lot of people.

They start to think that if they’re not working or not being productive then they’re doing something wrong.

They’re lazy, they’re worthless, they’re not good enough, things like that.

When the truth actually is that if you’re not working or not being productive 100% of the time, you’re doing something good for yourself.

Your worth or enoughness has not decreased, because nothing can make that change.

And even if you are being lazy, you don’t have to define yourself as a lazy person.

And let’s also be clear here that resting and being lazy are not the same thing.

Now, real quick, I want to note that I’m using laziness here to denote what resting is not.

Lazy doesn’t even have to be a bad thing. I could have a lazy Saturday and absolutely love it and have zero negative consequences.

But going off of how we see laziness a majority of the time, I’ll use it in this episode to describe a way of resting that isn’t useful, and I’m going to do this just to make it easier to explain why rest isn’t a bad thing.

Some people tend to see rest and laziness as the same thing but they’re not.

Laziness, as I’m defining it here, is when you’re resting too much and not working enough. Basically, you’re off balance with doing more rest than work.

It’s the excess of rest and that’s not what I’m encouraging you to do here.

I’m encouraging enough rest, not overdoing it.

Over resting could have negative consequences just as over working could. Not necessarily the same ones but maybe so.

But, getting enough rest, will provide you with amazing outcomes.

Think about how good it feels to have time for yourself to relax, with no obligations, and no worries.

So good, right??

Why would you not give that to yourself?

If you’re not, it’s probably because you’re thinking it’s waste of time, or that you don’t have time.

First, it’s so not a waste of time.

So many people think they need to be productive all the time and if they’re not, they’re wasting their time.

But I actually like to think of resting as being productive.

Look at all that you produce when you rest: Focus, energy, alertness, better moods, refreshment, reduced stress, better mental health, a clear head, and so much more.

You are not wasting your time when you rest.

You are creating a better you when you rest.

When you don’t allow for yourself to rest, you’re creating burnout.

And so second, if you think you don’t have time to rest and create a better you and create all that I listed a moment ago, then it’s time you make time.

I know you have a lot going on.

But here’s the thing.

If you don’t prioritize rest for yourself, you’re not going to be able to keep up with all that you have going on.

Like I said earlier, your performance in what you have going on isn’t going to be the best you can do.

The less you rest, the worse you’ll perform.

So if you want to feel your best and do your best in all that you have going on your life, make time to rest.

Now let’s bring this back to binge eating, and overeating too.

Your brain and body need rest.

If you don’t give them rest, they’re going to urge you for it, maybe even force it when they shut down and you begin to feel sick or drained.

I know that’s for sure happened to me too many times where I feel rundown and it’s just my body reacting to being overworked.

And there’s two ways I’m going to connect this to your binge eating.

One, I’ve seen so many times, people eating to try and get out of this state.

They’re exhausted and not feeling well and in their mind, their solution is to eat to get energy.

I had this association in my mind for the longest time, and once in a while it will still pop up.

Eating is the solution in our minds and it makes sense because food is fuel. And sometimes, when we’re feeling low energy it actually is because we’re low on energy, aka hungry, and eating is the solution.

But it’s so important to uncover the real reason why you’re feeling how you’re feeling so you’ll know if eating is the real solution.

Because when you’re not resting and that’s the reason why you feel how you do, the real solution is rest. That’s the best option and what will actually bring you back to feeling your best, eating food isn’t it.

Give yourself rest if you’re needing rest. Don’t try and use eating food as a quick and easy way out of how you’re feeling. It’s not going to work.

And that may mean that you have to cancel or postpone things while you rest, and most of the time, that’s totally okay.

And it will be okay in your mind, which is where it’s most important that it’s okay, if you’re honest with yourself about why you’ll be better off taking this time to rest. And it’s for all the reason I mentioned before about why rest is productive and because it is that real solution.

So if you allow yourself time to rest, it can lessen the times when you eat to try and fix your exhaustion and your unwellness.

The other way I want to connect this to your eating is with the energy you do or don’t have.

Stopping binge eating is going to require energy and if you don’t have enough of it, you’re not going to do the work.

If you’re feeling exhausted, the last thing you’re going to want to do is make decisions, think, do more work, break habits, put in conscious effort, you know, things that will help you to stop binge eating.

So if you want to have energy to work on stopping binge eating, you can produce energy with rest.

Give yourself the gift of rest, make time for it, prioritize it, create a balance with it and work.

And be intentional about it. Schedule it and decide ahead of time what you’re going to do with your rest time.

Doing this will make it easier for you to do activities that will actually produce rejuvenating rest instead of impulsively choosing eating which might turn into bingeing. Or, so you don’t find yourself with time to rest and actually end up feeling bored….which could also lead into eating and maybe bingeing.

And, when you are resting, enjoy the crap out of it. Be present in it. This is your time for you. It’s not your time to think about or worry about the things you have to do in the future.

Make it restful on purpose. Mentally be where you are.

So if you’re someone who looks down on rest, it’s time to change your perspective.

Resting is one of the best things you can do for yourself and like with all things, too much of a good thing can lead to outcomes you don’t want and that’s why it’s important to find the balance of rest and work.

And you’ll find that balance simply by checking in with how you feel. Notice if you’re feeling drained in your work or in your rest because you’re doing too much of either of them and if you are, it’s time to switch gears.

Alright, commit to balancing rest with work, starting right now.

And I’ll talk to you again soon, bye bye.