A few years ago, Ximena Vengoechea was working three jobs. She had a full time job at a tech company, had recently become a new mum, and had just had her first book published. She was busy; she was tired; but she was living the dream, wasn’t she?
Then the pandemic hit, California, where she lived, was besieged by bushfires, and she had to finally admit she wasn’t coping. Quitting her job didn’t bring her the peace she had hoped for, and after a few months she realised that restoration could only come from embracing the one thing she had sidelined her whole life: rest.
Vengoechea details her journey in her book, Rest Easy: Discover Calm and Abundance through the Radical Power of Rest. It’s not an exaggeration to describe rest as a radical act, she says, and single mothers can absolutely agree with that.
Most single mothers spend every minute of the day doing something, and it’s usually for other people. We’re working or studying; we’re raising our kids; we’re managing our household entirely by ourselves. If something has to give way to get everything done, it’s usually that something we do for ourselves. We sacrifice sleep; exercise happens only when we can fit it in; that book we’ve been dying to read sits unopened on the bedside table.
And if we do manage five minutes to ourselves on the couch, it’s only a matter of time before our minds wander to all the things we should be doing. We should be folding the laundry; we should be playing with the kids.
Is rest a radical notion? You better believe it!
How to join the rest revolution
There’s few things that annoy single mothers more than being told they need to rest. When can I rest, we cry! There are kids to feed; deadlines to meet. That’s why we all need to know about micro-resting.
“Micro-moments of rest are a really lovely and lightweight way to incorporate rest into your daily routine,” Vengoechea told Forbes magazine
“My favorite micro rest practices are doodling, microsleeping, and noticing something beautiful.
“Doodling is mind-wandering on paper. It’s a chance for you to draw whatever comes to mind. It can be as fancy or inelegant as you please! It can be something you save and keep a dedicated sketchbook for, or something you scribble on the back of a cocktail napkin and throw out right away. The benefit is in creating the space for your mind to wander, unload, daydream, and surface ideas, feelings and emotions.”
Another technique Vengoechea recommends is pausing for a couple of minutes everyday to notice something beautiful. Stop, look at it, take a few moments to describe in your mind what you are seeing and how it makes you feel.
“It’s appreciating the silly giggle of a child at the library, or the perfectly soft and cozy fabric of your favorite sweater on a crisp fall day. It might be noticing the sound of the rain pouring outside your window, or taking a deep breath of that perfect post-rain scent.”
Taking a few moments every day to simply notice takes your mind away from your anxiety, stress, and never-ending to-do lists.
Share your micro-rest moment!
At CSMC, we are all about inspiring each other, so we want to share our tips for micro-resting! Take a photo of your favourite micro-resting moment and send it to us at coms@csmc.org.au. It could be a pic of your feet up on the couch, of your hand touching the trunk of a rough, ancient tree, of the opening credits of your guilty viewing pleasure. Or maybe a few words …
We’ll put an anonymous collage together of photos and words and share in an upcoming issue of this e-bulletin.
Together we can normalise rest! Viva la rest revolution!
