Rest is not only about idleness or laziness, but it involves recharging mental and physical batteries after working. Charles Darwin's life serves as an example of using two sets of creative muscles, where the unconscious mind continues to think and explore new connections during activities like puttering in the garden or taking long walks. Rest should be culturally understood as involving exercise and serious hobbies, rather than just sleeping or idleness, for it to be truly restorative.
Between making time for work, family, friends, exercise, chores, shopping—the list goes on and on—it can feel like a huge accomplishment to just take a few minutes to read a book or watch TV before bed. All that busyness can lead to poor sleep quality when we finally do get to put our heads down.
How does our relationship with rest impact our ability to gain real benefits from it? And how can we use our free time to rest in a culture that often moralizes rest as laziness? Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, the author of several books on rest and director of global programs at 4 Day Week Global, explains what rest is and how anyone can get started doing it more effectively.
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