Active Rest

The cherry blossoms in our neighborhood are putting on quite the show this week. Pale pink petals dance in the wind, some clinging stubbornly to branches, others surrendering completely to gravity's pull. I've found myself pausing at odd moments just to watch them. There's a lesson in the way they release — no struggle, no agenda, just a graceful letting go when the time is right.

I've been thinking about this a lot as clients have been asking me variations of the same plaintive question: "I know I need to rest, I want to rest, but I don't actually know how." It's like we've collectively forgotten something fundamental about being human. We excel at productivity, at checking boxes, at pushing through — but the sacred art of true rest? That's become foreign territory.

My grandmother Rosemary knew something about this journey. If you caught Episode 108, you heard about her Dust Bowl childhood, where survival meant constant work. No space for frivolity or play when crops needed tending and mouths needed feeding. Yet in her later years, she mastered the art of play with the enthusiasm of a child discovering the world for the first time. Rolling on the floor with grandchildren. Attempting headstands against the living room wall. Kicking her leg high just because she could. Dancing to every single song that came on the radio.

What happened between those two chapters of her life? She discovered that rest isn't passive at all — it's an active choice to surrender, to release control, to trust that the world won't fall apart if we step back.

One of my podcast guests last month shared that she schedules "pointless time" in her calendar — blocks where the only agenda is to have no agenda at all. "The minute I made it non-negotiable," she told me, "everything else in my life got better." She protects these spaces with the same ferocity she brings to her most important meetings. No apologies, no explanations.

I've been experimenting with this approach in my own small ways. Last weekend, I left my phone at home and walked along the shoreline with absolutely no destination. I watched sandpipers dance with the waves, their tiny legs moving in perfect rhythm with the ocean's pulse. I collected three perfectly smooth stones that fit in my palm like they were made for it. I sat and did absolutely nothing productive for forty-five glorious minutes.

It felt uncomfortable at first — that familiar itch to be doing something, anything. But eventually, I started to settle in. I’m trying to remember how to be present without purpose. How to rest.

What might happen if you approached rest not as another thing on your to-do list but as a playground? What if play wasn't frivolous but as necessary to your wellbeing as water or air?

Here are a few playful experiments to try this week:

1. Schedule a 20-minute "pointless time" block where your only goal is to follow what feels good in the moment

2. Dance to your favorite song from high school (bonus points for using hairbrush microphones). Or dance to this song, which was our One-song Dance Party Jam during last Friday’s virtual Uplifter co-working session. (Paid subscribers: hop in any time for focused work and play with us!)

3. Lie on the ground and look up at the sky — notice how quickly your perspective shifts

The courage to rest in a world that glorifies hustle isn't easy. It takes practice and permission. But as spring unfolds around us with its scene-stealing blooms and birdsong, maybe we can take our cues from nature. Everything that grows also needs time to rest, to integrate, to simply be.

Wanna get away and write your story this summer? Former podcast guest Melissa is leading "Writing for Shame Resilience: Turning Shame Into Your Superpower" at Esalen Institute this summer. This five-day workshop combines storytelling and self-compassion practices in Big Sur's breathtaking coastal setting. Dreamy!!

Playfully,

Aransas

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