My math may be skewed, but it feels like my kids have had more days off from school than they’ve had days in school.
Today was another one.
I guess the 35 degree weather was too cold to do something as silly as learn and socialize.
So I took them to The Bounce Place at the mall and made them run, jump, fight, and play for an hour and a half while I repeatedly swiped my card at the massage chair.
It’s a ritual of ours at this point.
But this post isn’t about kids. They’re like puppies needing an outlet for energy, and a tired dog is a happy dog.
We all get that.
This post is about us adults, and what happens when our child-like need for activity (d)evolves into an adult-like need for rest.
This might be an unpopular opinion but…
I think being uninterestingly productive can be more restful than actual rest.
You know those days when your head hits the pillow feeling very exhausted but very content, because it was a good day’s work?
You didn’t even accomplish anything noteworthy, but you just kept moving.
Those are without fail the best nights of sleep.
Cleaning a room. Doing the dishes. Organizing something. Knocking out those to-do list items that have been dormant for too long. That’s uninteresting productivity.
All mindless tasks (with mindless being the operative component), but all with their own subtle way of patting you on the back for a job well done.
It’s easy to confuse our brains being exhausted with our bodies needing rest.
Most of the time our bodies are just fine. It’s our minds that need a break.
We expend copious amounts of energy thinking (both in our work and in our down time), so we default to tuning out in whatever way we can.
A drink. A show. A few hundred scrolls. Another drink.
It feels like we need to physically rest, but what we really need is mental rest; respite from the mental chatter and endless processing between our ears.
The scrolling, binge watching, and drinks may provide this respite, but it provides it in the way that ibuprofen reduces a fever without doing much for the illness.
Mindless tasks can provide that much needed mental rest in spades, with none of the downsides of the easy outlets we may default to.
A tired dog is a happy dog. And a tired adult is a happy adult.
But only when that tired adult also has a rested mind.
If you find value in the things I publish here, it’d mean the world if you’d share it with someone else. It’s the only way this space and community continues to grow.
✌️ and ❤️,
Adam Griffin