Let’s face it, we live in a culture that values those who work, work, work and then work some more. And the more you work, the more heroic you are, the more dedicated you seem and the more awarded and applauded you are.
However, there is a movement on the rise that is sparking a pushback against this. A famous face behind this resistance is co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington, who wrote a book, The Sleep Revolution, all about the importance of sleep after she collapsed and woke up in a pool of her own blood (due to a broken cheekbone). When her doctors told her she collapsed from the sheer exhaustion of only sleeping three to four hours a night, that was her wake up call and she has been touting the benefits of a proper nights’ sleep ever since.
Rest is also a non-negotiable for the world’s top athletes. It is just as important in their routine as training and nutrition. Science is very clear on the serious health impact that a lack of sleep causes. We need to treat sleep not as an IF but as a MUST; as something that we must have in our schedules, just like any other appointment or task that has to happen in our day.
Oprah famously said that women suffer from the, “disease to please” and it is literally draining us. We need to start setting up healthy boundaries that allow us to fully unplug, spend time with our families and friends, reflect, engage in our communities and, not to get too woo-woo, but do things that nourish our souls through activities that make us deeply happy.
Doing these things is so important to keep us functioning at our highest level and to stop compromising our health. The level of stress we’re exposed to these days is unparalleled and it is wreaking havoc on our hormones, it causes disease and even affects the quality of our relationships. Let’s counteract these effects and find ourselves again.
By taking time for ourselves we’re improving our health by really re-charging our batteries, which allows us to be more available to others, lowers our stress levels, fills our minds with new thoughts and opens us up to new ideas, and ultimately leads us to have way more energy, a renewed focus and a healthier overall mindset.
And who couldn’t use that?