What Are We Resting For?
An inventory to find where our most important energy wants to go
I have to admit that this morning I woke up feeling exhausted, frustrated, and like I did not want to add one more thing to my to do list.
Here I was, presented with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go paddle with tribal members from all over the country (and most importantly, tribal youth from the Klamath river basin) to celebrate the newly restored and free-flowing Klamath River. A family local to the lands that I know and love deeply invited me to come with them…and all I could notice and feel in my body was how tired and grumpy I was.
My inner child started slamming its fists into my ribcage.
“I don’t want to go. I just want to sleep and get back on my regular schedule!” the temper-tantrum started to really swirl. “I don’t want to get up and work all day and then travel for another entire week. I just want to rest!”
It was in that moment I was pretty damn sure I was going to cancel going to the Klamath. That the responsible thing to do was to return to my regular life and get “back on track” for awhile.
“Yeah, sometimes as adults we have to make hard calls like this” I heard a very reasonable other part of me chime in and instantly felt the tired and cranky parts of me feel like they had swayed the vote.
And then, quietly at first, I could hear the calm inner adult in my own head. The one who is watching out for everyone:
“Ah, this makes sense. You’re so tired. You’ve been working out-of-office for weeks and this trip wasn’t initially on your schedule. Our brains and bodies have a very hard time with last minute plans and disruptions in our routine, and they especially have a hard time accessing good feelings and taking risks when we’re super tired. This opportunity is extremely important to you. Do you have the capacity to go do this and participate as much as possible, even if you feel tired? Even if it feels imperfect while you’re there? Can you give yourself permission to rest, even while saying yes to this?”
The gut-level instinct was immediately a yes.
I’ve been hoping and championing free-flowing rivers my entire life and watching the story about this carefully over at least a decade. I was now being asked by a family that I loved to come celebrate this with them.
Yes, I was feeling unrested…and I reminded myself that the entire reason I became passionate about sleep health in the first place is so that people could find enough stability in their rest, sleep, and nervous systems to show up to the things that feel most important to them.
This was incredibly important to me.
How could I use the tools I had in my toolbox to show up well even while I was tired?
I share this tiny story with you today because maybe there is an area in your life (or if you’re an adult human, probably many areas) in your life, where you feel you might be lacking time or energy resources to show up as fully as you would hope.
If some of these are recurring patterns—sure, definitely might be a situation where we need to take a good, hard look at our habits and shift a tiny, 1% closer to making more supportive decisions for our rest.
However, if you have something in your life that you’ve been consistently putting off, waiting for that perfect moment when you’re ‘fully-energized,’ or a once in a lifetime opportunity rolls around and you feel like you have to say no because of energy…how can we be kind enough to ourselves to still show up? Even if that means doing it tired.
One answer is not better than another. It’s all about discernment and knowing what’s best for you in which chapters of your life. But today, I just wanted to invite another layer of nuance to the sleep health world and remind us all that it’s not about always doing everything perfectly rested all of the time. Sometimes, it’s about recognizing how precious a moment is and using all of our tools to bring rest into that moment so that we don’t miss it.
When this publishes, I’ll hopefully be rigging boats and floating down the final free-flowing stretch of the Klamath to the ocean. I’ll be tired, the family I am with will be tired. It’s likely that the tribal youth who have been on the water for the past several weeks doing the first ascent of the undamed river will be tired. I imagine many, many, many of the organizers, facilitators, families, and advocates who worked tirelessly to remove the four dams will also be tired.
But we’ll all be there together, celebrating something energizingly beautiful, together.
Send us your free-flowing thoughts,
I look forward to resting with you all when I’m back around,
Dagny Rose
This sub-section of The Art of Rest, is all about—you guessed it—The Rest.
As a trained sleep scientist and mindfulness teacher & researcher, here we explore the everything related to rest. Whether we are unpacking the newest evidence-based sleep health tips, exploring day-to-day tools for bolstering and protecting rest, or diving into a world of dreams, “The Rest” is going to regularly touch into what a restful life is, and how to move towards one5
Looking For A Way To Dig Deeper Into Your Wildest Dreams?
Well, while I cannot find those dreams for you, The Art of Rest is having their first Missoula-based community event where you can explore them for yourself! Together we’ll use myth, story, and folklore as a way to:
Rest our nervous systems into community with a sense of belonging
Explore motifs, archetype, & symbology from the tale of The Lindworm
Expand our sense of curiosity and creativity with creative practices, discussion, and reflective questions
This event will be hosted at Sacred Ally on July 27th from 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM. Spots are limited so make sure to register so you don’t miss out.