I wonder why we stop taking naps.
Small children clearly need them to rest and process which makes a lot of sense.
But wouldn’t we all benefit from more rest and times where there’s no workload or screen or anything else drowning us in information and expectations?
I find it incredibly important to make time for moments like this (if at all possibe)
Let’s take a moment to just breathe, process, regulate and rest.
Reloading The Day
Last week I found myself feeling overwhelmed, stressed and anxious for no particular reason.
Some time ago I would have taken this to mean this day is just going to be bad.
But did you know that we can just “reload” a day and try again?
The magical button for this is called “Taking a nap” and it is so much more amazing than it sounds!
I understand that this may seem like a total waste of time and like it might just lead to more stress because now you have all the same things to do but later.
But it isn’t!
When I lay down on a “bad day” it usually goes as follows:
I decide to lay down only to then stay awake and procrastinate.
Sometimes it’s enough to remind myself: “this will help me” to actually close my eyes and wait till I drift off to sleep.
Sometimes though, the only way to trick my bird-brain into resting is to be in darkness. However, I don’t like to do that if it can be avoided, since waking up in darkness tends to make me feel less refreshed upon waking up.
The effects a nap can have are incredible!
For me, a simple nap can drastically reduce the amount of overwhelm I feel throughout the day, increase my ability to concentrate, lift my mood, make me feel more motivated and help me feel like my true, authentic self!
I take a nap almost every day at around 1pm. This splits my day into two halves making each half more managable for me.
Of course, not everyone has the time to do this, but if you find yourself feeling overwhelmed and stressed out often, I highly recommend trying to take 20 minutes to rest whenever possible!
Here’s my cheat code for re-filling your stats without staring a new day:
> Turn off any noise
> Set an alarm for about 20 minutes
> Lay down
> Close your eyes
(If laying still just isn’t possible)
> Try white noise or calming music
or/and
> Darken the room
Don’t pressure yourself to fall asleep!
Just laying and resting can be enough to feel much better!
Wonderful Awakening
On this particular “bad day”, I woke up from my nap to the sun filling my room with beautiful golden light.
The birds were chirping their happy melody from all the trees nearby and a warm breeze blew smells of freshly cut grass through the gaps between my curtains.
It felt like a wonderful summer day married with the mild temperatures of spring!
Which left me in yet another debacle:
I can’t just sit inside on a day like this!
So… I didn’t!
Now as I mentioned in a previous post; going outside normally is a quite rare priviledge to me. But lately I’ve been lucky that I haven’t been living alone for a few months while my partner is working from home.
This means that I currently have unlimited access to someone to badger with my many great arguments for needing to go wander through the fields NOW
To do him justice: He’s never said no to a little stroll if his shedule allows for it in any way and I tend to come up with excuses to badger with before he even had a chance to say “sure”. ^^’
Walking Through The Change Of Seasons
On our strolls throughout the last months, we’ve been mainly walking along the same route.
It’s incredible how much the same place changes throughout just a few weeks when there’s nature around, allowed to grow and blossom!
The meadows, which were covered in the yellow glow of fresh daisies and dandelions, turning into fields of white fluff as the dandelions faded, and now were glowing yet again in the lushous green of juicy grass, coming up high to well above my knees!
All the trees were back to their full, leafy glory, offering homes and shelter for fuzzy baby feather-beans and critters of all kinds.
In this area, we’ve been getting regular concerts of eagle owls – a sound, that reminds me of warm spring and early summer days, mushing together wheats and herbs out in the garden as a child pretending to make magic potions, the owls graciously offering to sing me some ambience music!
To me, they still sing of my grandfather and I arriving home after a long biking tour, so many years ago.
I can still feel, how my legs would feel like they’re made of rubber after a ride like that and how I struggled to make it up the stairs to my room, to drop onto my bed smiling and giggling about myself and the wonderful day I’ve had.
The Memories Of Our Dreams
It’s the beauty in the changing, yet repeating cycles of nature and memories like these, that I had forgotten about for years.
As I’m learning to embrace a slow life, learning to rest and allow myself to bloom in the limitations and the freedom of who I am – just as that little girl brewing magic-mud-potions used to do – the joy and beauty of all these things are slowly starting to come back.
I used to find myself in bed, trying to take a nap but not being able to bear the silence for fear of memories I pray to have forgotten for good.
But the more I find myself, the more I truly love, laugh, cry and thrive, the more I crave this silence.
It’s this connection to simple things, to the joy of a sunny day and comfort of a blanket in a storm, that make me feel connected to myself as well.
Yes, sometimes the dreams turn into nightmares and the pain comes back to haunt the silence…
But then, as often as I can, I pull the plug.
I lay down, allow myself to rest and process and remind myself of what’s actually real.
Sometimes this is all I need and the world feels light and bright again, when I’m ready to return.
My tears dry and and the fields welcome me back in new colours.
Simply because I took some time to rest, process and breathe.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my rambing!
May your days be filled with a calming breeze and joyful dreams
Have a wonderful week!
Snowdrop