Rest is medicine

What does this mean to you? Stop for a moment to think, what is rest? How do you rest and how often? I thought I knew what it was, of course, I though rest was simply not working. I always thought rest meant doing something for fun and pleasure, something that was not an obligation, and usually involved spending money. Over the past couple of years, I never took a day off to stay at home and do nothing, my vacations were always saved for traveling. Through my experience with Covid I discovered I had no idea what rest was and came to the realization that I hadn’t rested in a long time, probably since I started working “professionally” more than 5 years ago. The world we live in conditions us to be in constant movement, and with movement I’m referring to action, progression, expansion and vertical growth. It forgets about the natural cycle: Life - Death - Life, where there is space for grief, rest, listening, integration, contemplation, transition, and horizontal growth. The pursuit of something greater keeps us always moving, but for what? If we are not able to enjoy the present moment, appreciate how far we’ve come and slow down to take it all in, why do we even race? Certainly, I can say I’m grateful I finally got Covid (after more than two years), because it taught me so much about life, about slowing down, and allowing my body to heal itself, not just physically but at all levels.

Isn’t it crazy that most times we wait until we can’t no more in order to allow ourselves some rest? We are taught to always go go go, and only rest when our body forces us, like when we get very sick or perhaps when someone close to us dies and we just can’t keep going anymore.  As I was writing these lines, I realized something, with sickness and emotions there’s a similar pattern. It is rooted in the same belief, the thought that by silencing the signal (weather it’s a symptom or an emotion) we solve the root cause. Or said in another way, that as soon as the symptom disappears, the issue does as well. And nothing can be farther from the truth, but Traditional Western Medicine has pushed this idea for so long, and with such an intensity and conviction, that we believe it.

For a second, let’s leave emotions out of the picture to simplify our conversation. When we get a headache or some type of mild pain in our body, what do you do? In the house I grew up there was always Tylenol, Advil or some other medicine to treat the symptom. Maybe your upbringing was different, perhaps you parents were big on using herbs or homeopathic medicine, but my best bet is that you grew up similar to how I did. I treasure my mom, love her to death and I’m eternally grateful for all she did and still does for me, but as a grown-up after going through my own experiences, I have discovered that our bodies are far more powerful than we believe or let them be. Without realizing it, we have allowed the power to shift from ourselves to the doctors, and trust blindly the white coat, taking what they say as absolute truths. More than ever, we look for solutions externally, rather than allowing ourselves to be in the moment, sit with the symptom, listen to our body, and find the hidden message even in illness. Life is a constant learning process, and even the worst experiences have some type of gift or silver lining, but if we are disconnected and distracted, we will miss it every time. Please, know that this does not apply to every other illness and situation, there are many cases where Traditional Medicine is amazing, needed, and appreciated, but I challenge you to think in which cases you can take a different approach initially, creating the right environment within, to allow your body to restore itself.

Part of creating an ideal environment starts with rest, and not just rest as a last resource to get better, but rather incorporating rest as part of our life. Our body has a voice, and it only yells when we don’t listen to its whispers. Sadly, we’ve never been taught how to really listen to our body, and the system is not built for us to do so either, it’s created in a way that prevents us from really connecting. It’s makes it so friking hard for us to say [I’m taking a full day of PTO to just be, and do things that nurture my body, my soul, my spirit], because anyone working a corporate job for example, has X days of PTO or vacations, and frankly it’s not enough. We ignore the signals for so long, until the body starts yelling, and this means illness. Even then, when we become ill, we go to the doctor who prescribes some meds that will silence the symptoms, do nothing for the root cause, and allow us to continue moving and working. This only makes it harder for your body to activate it’s healing capacity, because you’re depleting the energy it needs to recover.

Our body is our temple, and it deserves to be treated as such. Everything is connected, and as we start opening up space to listen to our body, we fine tune the innate wisdom we carry in our cells. Many people ask me for book recommendations, and there’s a great one on this subject. If you’re interested, look for The Biology of Belief, by Bruce Lipton. It has the perfect balance between science-based facts and spirituality.

I truly hope you can find some rest this weekend, or whenever you feel the need.
With love & gratitude,  

Nicole