I sometimes enjoy a nap in the afternoon and even writing this feels uncomfortable. Napping is a
guilty pleasure that I haven’t really shared with anyone. Sometimes I will even use the excuse that I am meditating, to make it sound legitimate.
I didn’t learn to nap until I was 8 months pregnant and working full time. I found that 20 minutes
late afternoon was enough to restore my mood and body and give me something of an evening.
Resting in the daytime felt reasonable and seemed to be encouraged when my body was growing a baby and this carried on for a (very) short while after.
What is it about feeling or being perceived as lazy that is so excruciating?
Or is that just me?
My culture?
In the past, people knew how to work physically hard but they also knew the value of rest. They
allowed their bodies to follow a natural cycle and if they were ill, they understood the need for
time to convalesce. Sometimes, even being sent away to recuperate.
So many of us now ‘power through’, often medicating our bodies in preference to resting them.
The financial stress of being unpaid can make time off work difficult or impossible for some. This can also be the case for many children too, as we all live under the illusion that we must be
productive at all times if we want to succeed. Progress at all costs.
Horses naturally know how to conserve energy - as prey animals they need to. They can be
wonderful teachers at ‘being’ if we allow them. Spending time with a herd as they loaf and doze,
can be especially calming.
If they need to run, they will, but their focus is on the health of their bodies and that of the herd.
The more rested everyone is, the more productive they will be if and when they need to be. When
the body and mind are rested, they can function better.
In a time when there is an epidemic of sleep problems, depression and related disorders, affecting even the youngest members of society, maybe we need to rethink how we view rest and particularly when we are ill, the extended period of rest we need to fully recover. This is especially important in the age of technology, I feel. It’s not that many moons ago that we lived without our senses constantly being bombarded - simply because external stimulation didn’t exist. When it got dark, we slept. It’s surprising how quickly technology has completely changed our relationship with rest, leaving many of us depleted and sick. Not knowing where the off switch is or when to press it.
Wikipedia says that ‘Until the late 1980s very nearly every television station signed off at night due to transmitter maintenance and simply not having to provide programming to an audience that didn't exist’.
So maybe it’s imperative now, for us to be mindful of what our bodies need, in the way of rest -
not just sleep, but time daydreaming, fire-gazing, watching stars and clouds - doing nothing at all.
Time without any agenda.
Even our structured self-care routines can feel overwhelming and cause anxiety as we try
desperately to find the answer to feeling better. Perhaps what we need (instead of that instagram or YouTube feed about how to get more time / health / fitness - fill in the blank), is to parent ourselves more.
We need to tell ‘us’ to - “Put it all away now and go to bed”.
To tuck ‘us’ in, tell ourselves a lovely story (that won’t make us dream), kiss us on the cheek and
turn out the light.
I wonder what the world would be like if everyone took an afternoon nap, took plenty of early
nights and recuperated as and when they felt they needed to.