FINDING FOCUS IN THE CHAOS: Part Seven

Rest as a portal to creativity and focus

Hello love!

What do you think of when I say REST? bed? Sofa? hammock? Holidays? Snoozing in the sun? Cosying up in front of a fire with a cuppa?

With the caveat that I am never happier than when I am in my bed, rest isn’t all about sleeping, it’s not always passive and there are many, many ways in which to rest.

One thing is for sure though, and that is that resting is HUGELY beneficial for creativity, productivity and focus.

On the days where you are in total overwhelm with a to do list as long as you’re arm, that’s when it’s more, not less, important to build in some rest.

So however busy you are, stop right now, read this and start to plan how to win through rest…

As I mentioned, there are different kinds of rest. To me, rest is anything that involves restoration, activities to replenish our energy, our creativity, and our focus. In order to feel balanced and whole, we need to use rest in between the busyness of life to help to keep us well and happy and importantly to avoid burn out.

Emotional Rest

The emotional load on women is huge and its effect on us cannot be underestimated. Whenever I feel myself spiralling in the area of overwhelm it is quite often because I am not getting enough emotional rest.

Ways we can do this are:

Limiting time with draining or demanding people - not always possible but as much as we can, we need to take breaks from the people around us who demand too much emotional energy or, through their own mindset, have a negative effect on ours. It’s ok to not pick up the phone to someone sometimes. It’s ok to not be available. It’s also ok, if these are people that you live with, to set boundaries and limits with them. (More about boundaries HERE).

Finding people we feel emotionally ‘safe’ with. having people who we can just be ourselves with, be authentic, not have to put on a brave face, who we can explore our emotions with is very freeing and restful and can create this sense of emotional rest where we are not having to mask anything. We can just be without judgement. (Therapy and coaching can also give you this experience).

Creative Rest

Even if you are a creative person who makes a living from your creativity, that doesn’t mean you have access to creative rest. Creative rest looks like:

Having an artist’s date - going out somewhere to experience art with no real agenda

Trying a type of creativity that you haven’t experienced before or are a beginner in

Indulging in someone else’s creativity in a sensory and passive way, go see a film, listen to music, watch some dance. I went to see Small Things Like These last week and I cannot stop thinking about how from a creativity perspective it was absolutely breathtaking.

Sensory Rest

Withdrawing from things that can be jarring is a perfect form of rest. If you are a highly sensitive person or are neurodivergent, you may need to focus on this to feel well. It could be sound, lighting, smell, a combination of these. Spending time alone, in silence can be a great sensory rest, or having lighting at the right level for you, as can taking time to be in nature, feeling and experiencing the elements.

Physical Rest

this comes back to the idea of baths, beds and sofas, but we can also experience rest through exercises such as yoga and stretching, low impact more mindful exercise such as pilates or enjoying the physical release of a sauna or a massage.

So, now I have given you some ideas, what might you do? What can you plan into your otherwise busy days and weeks to give you some rest?

You could:

• Book a massage

• Get tickets to see some live art - dance, theatre, music, an exhibition, whatever calls to you

• Arrange a coffee date with a friend who allows you to be the real you

• Take a solitary walk in nature each day and practice mindful walking by focusing on a colour

• Rain check something in the diary with a person who is too draining or demanding or let the phone go to voice mail.

• Improve your sensory surroundings at home, swap out cold light for warm, allow yourself to be ‘picky’ about noise and temperature so you have things just right at times that you want to rest. Turn your phone off, lock the door, breathe!

Look at your diary and spot the gaps - or make some. Add some rest. Start small and simple, walks, a 5 minute stretch, some meditation, a phone call with a friend.

If you have ideas of how to take and make the most of rest, I’m sure the community here would love to hear about them so please do tell us in the comments.

And if you’ve come across this series late, don’t worry you can go back! There are six previous parts to the series and you can find them all in my archives.

With love,

Sarah x