This past month I had two encounters that made me think about rest in a more intentional way. The first was in conversation with a nonprofit leader. They were sharing how they have implemented week long breaks for their organization every quarter. They shared some science/biology with me – when we don’t get enough sleep the first thing affected is executive functioning which includes verbal fluency, creative thinking, and nonverbal planning. This has been making my head explode because these are some of the primary functions of my job!

This past month I also began supervising a social work intern. After a long, successful, yet tiring retreat, they asked the team how we rest or recover after these “high-energy” activities. I was honest about my own challenges with resting. My brand of exhaustion looks like me, slumped on my couch, scrolling on Instagram for hours, no energy to make something to eat but not so tired that I want to go to sleep. You would think that since our curious intern asked this question I would do something different when I got home like get some rest. But I didn’t – I did what I always do. The next day, I noticed I was still tired. I had enough energy to show up to a few hours of zoom calls but in between calls and toward the end of the day I couldn’t do much else. The follow day, I still felt some tiredness but my schedule was lighter so I could ease through the day. I’m sure I did good enough work in the midst of recovering but I can’t help but wonder how I might have responded or engaged differently if I had taken the time to rest.

So, to answer my own question “are you resting?” -- not as much as I should. My reluctance to engage in recovery activities after work feels related to some of the personal work I’m doing around anxiety and procrastination. In the meantime, I’m going to make some accommodations that are accepting of where I am right now. One action I am taking is putting blocks on my calendar the morning after my future full day high-energy activities.

How are you resting? How are you recovering from the stress of your work? Does your team or organization value rest? After all, we can’t be working and producing all the time (and its delusional to think anyone actually is). I’m looking forward to having more conversations with my colleagues, peers and clients about how they are resting. My hope is that we come to value rest as much as production as our workplace continues to shift and transform. We deserve it.