I recently read “Rest – Why you get more done when you work less” by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang.

The title says most of what the book is about, but what I’ve taken most is an inspiration to take deliberate rest.

How I understand it, deliberate rest is rest you take consciously, through a range of activities/events, in order to disconnect from the daily worries and challenges. It’s a pause to recharge, but this pause doesn’t seem to be you just taking a break and doing nothing. It can be an active one or not and can be a short one or can take a longer period of time.

Physical exercises or creative play (e.g. drawing, playing an instrument) are active types of pauses that will connect you to the present moment while helping your brain to rest.

Sleeping, meditation, and contemplation are other examples, that help your body and mind to stay fit. 

One of my favourite chapters talks about Sabbaticals and their power. It’s like a longer, active pause to disconnect from the daily ongoings and connect to a different kind of energy, culture, and activity, in a different form of time and space, chosen by yourself. Sabbaticals, even though they are still not super popular, help us refresh our perspectives and ideas and massively improve life. 

The book is packed with examples and research on how taking deliberate rest, in any shape or form, helped people, communities, and companies to grow, thrive and change for good.

It’s a light read but at the same time, it’ll make question your lifestyle and might help in adding more consciousness and rest to your life. 

You can check it out here

Comments

comments