Is there anything more freeing than giving over to your body's demands, particularly for rest? I mean, if you are able to accomplish this in its purest and most absolute form - no guilt about laziness, no thinking about what you should be doing besides curling up and getting comfy, just letting go and BEING and really relishing that feeling. It's much harder to accomplish than you'd think, than I would think anyway because my brain works a certain way, but I'm in a deep rest phase right now and I'm not in any kind of hurry to get out of it. It tends to happen to me every year around this time, with the change of season. I know it's obnoxious to hear if you are not a dyed-in-the-wool Scorp with witchy tendencies or especially if you have seasonal affect (that sucks and I'm sorry), but I think that, as my body resists activity, I come to life, spiritually, when it gets darker earlier and I get to dress in layers. Crunchy leaves and candle flame, soft blankets and hot bevs, catnaps and stacks of paperbacks: sign me up. Eventually I'll have some get up and go, but I know by now that I can't force it, so I go with it. It's like getting hit on the head and waking up totally at peace with myself, body and soul. 10/10 recommend.
This particular entree into contentment-town can be attributed to the return from my recent Caribbean vacation. I got to have a week of indulgence and doing nothing with some truly great people in a tropical climate (more on this in a bit), but it was a different kind of nothing - partying takes a certain energy level! When I returned, it was suddenly chilly (the Boston area was almost 70 the day we left) and the contrast in not only weather but lifestyle has left me drowsy all week long and doing nothing to fight that drowsiness. Quite the opposite, I've been letting it guide me! It's the BEST!
I will be the first to say that it takes a certain amount of privilege to be able to exist and revel in this state of mind. For sure I'm super lucky I got to have this vacation to begin with, not to mention knowing that my kid was in the loving care of his grandparents all the while. But to also be able to indulge my capacity for following my body's bliss to its fullest is a testament to the lack of demands on my life. HR is pretty self-sufficient. I can do my job mostly at my own pace and from the comfort of my home. I'm not fatigued because I'm in poor health, and I take for granted that I'll be craving more movement and what-have-you before long. It's a luxury to be languid, and don't I know it. That's the thing about being in these periods, though, too - they make me centered and exquisitely grateful for so many things - my family and home, my friends and the EPIC time we had on our vacation, my body--even as it ages, especially as it ages--that gets me where I need to go and is proudly, stubbornly happy at rest. Grateful for this me
and this me
and all the mes I get to be thanks to the love and care that surrounds me at every turn.