Talane’s Blog of the Week, June 12, 2006

A Day of Rest

This Sunday was one of those absolutely perfect days—sunny and warm, but with a gentle cool breeze coming off the sea, so you never felt hot. It was perfectly beautiful. In fact, it was so lovely that we cancelled all plans to run off to Home Depot or make a trip to the dump. Instead, we pulled out the chaise lounges and spent the day reading the paper, flipping through decorating and garden books, and playing with our toddler. Basically, we did absolutely nothing. We didn’t go anywhere, not even down to the beach. Toward the end of the day I rallied ever so slightly and pulled a few weeds out of the flower bed. That was it. We didn’t even feel like cooking so we ordered in. The great thing about doing nothing is that time slows down. The day felt really long in a good way. And we both felt completely relaxed and rested.

Not that long ago, everything was closed on Sunday so you couldn’t go shopping. You were almost “forced” into having a day of rest. Now all that has changed and you can shop ‘til you drop any day of the week. There is a cost to this, and not just to your wallet. We’ve lost our day of rest, when we need it more than ever. Dan Sullivan points out that we are living in the midst of a major crossover in history. It isn’t just a new millennium, it is bigger than that. He says there have been three other crossovers. We are lucky enough to be living through the fourth, right now. The first crossover was the use of spoken language. The second was written language, which enabled humankind to communicate at a distance and over time (this was when all the great religions were created). The third was in 1455 with the invention of moveable type, which lead to the explosion of written texts. The fourth is the invention of digital language. We can now communicate not only over time and distance, but instantaneously. It will change everything in the next half century and has already resulted in an explosion of opportunity. Of course, on the flip side, it can feel like “the entire human race is being shoved off a cliff by technology to see if we can fly.”

How do you handle all this change? You need to rest. It is when you sleep that you integrate new knowledge and information. So any time that you are going through a major change or transition or learning new ways of being, the fastest way to get up to speed is to sleep. Our brains do the integrating while we sleep. If you feel the cliff is looming and are completely overwhelmed, the best thing you can do is get into bed.

Get the rest any way you can. No time or space? Do what one of my clients did -- hide in the supply closet for a ten minute nap. And, set aside one sacred day a week for doing absolutely nothing.

Enjoy!
Talane