the missing piece to your wellness journey.

Words on rest.

Rest is something I have genuinely struggled with in the past. And, it’s something that challenges me daily. While I have found a healthy balance, in both a mental and physical capacity, it is something I actively check in on every single day.

Why? Because it is so incredibly important AND yet, it can be so incredibly easy to push our limits.

Rest looks different for each of us, but regardless of what it looks like or how we integrate it into our lives, it is so needed.

We are bombarded by stressors daily, both in a physical and emotional capacity, and we just don’t have enough bandwidth sometimes to manage it all. Stress comes in all shapes and sizes and it is important that we familiarize ourselves with the areas, circumstances, and factors that present it most often. While some stress is out of our control, we always own the ability to choose how to respond to it. How we respond to stress can make a significant difference in how the stress affects us.

Similarly, stress comes in the form of the foods we eat, the toxins we’re exposed to, the level of movement we choose to integrate, the quality of sleep we get — and more. These are the stressors that are not commonly recognized but still have a significant impact on our health and wellness.

What is most alarming is the impact that chronic stress can have on our bodies and our minds — promoting the onset of chronic illness, premature aging, neurodegenerative disease, mental illness, and more. This is not always recognized within the Western healthcare system and it must be brought to the forefront of our focus.

One of the hardest lessons I’ve learned: If I don’t allow myself to rest, my body will take it for me. Rest is not negotiable — it is essential to any wellness journey. Whether we want to recognize it or not, our body and our brain will set a harsh limit with us, come to an abrupt stop, if either our body or our brain has reached capacity.

According to State Change (one of my favorite books) by Dr. Robin Berzin:


“Feeling like general crap is so pervasive, in fact, that in 2018, the World Health Organization added “burnout” as a diagnosable medical condition. Today, more than 90% of US workers say they feel burned out, as if they can’t wake up and don’t have the will or way to try.”

This is huge. Burnout is real and it is impacting our quality of life both in the immediate term and in the long term. Put simply, we are doing way too much and resting way too little.

For example, I pushed myself too far on Saturday during my workout, and paid the price for the week to follow. With rest, stretching, heat, and icing my injury, I’m feeling much better, but it has also given me the opportunity to reflect on the role that rest plays in our health. Similarly, as it relates to my mental bandwidth, I find myself over-committing or overextending myself from time to time, maybe something you can relate to also. The result? My productivity ends up imploding on itself and I fail to make any real progress in the tasks I’ve set out to do.

Mentally, it is restful to disconnect, to decompress, to slow down from time to time, to set a boundary, to say ‘no.’ Unfortunately, our society feels otherwise. We are immersed within hustle culture and toxic productivity — that even if you’re doing enough, you’re still not doing enough. Newsflash — you are doing enough.

On the other hand, physical rest can mean sleeping longer, stretching more, skipping a workout.

Both mental and physical rest influence our wellness, and both mental and physical rest need priority.

I encourage you to work towards finding a balance for yourself, in both physical and mental rest. The most productive thing we can do amidst our wellness journey is slow down. Ask yourself: what does rest look like for me?

Mental health is just as important as your physical health, and rest is important in both regards. 

This is your reminder to schedule REST for yourself daily. If you need support in developing more effective self care, learning about better supporting your nervous system, or exploring this concept of ‘rest,’ let’s talk.