Allowing us to have a total rest, being a sloth without any guilt is the antidote to burnout. It’s the unselfish thing we can do for ourselves as parents. It’s an ultimate cure to chronic stress.
Being a working parent, juggling the demands of work and chores, making sure kids eat healthy food, getting them off social media, handing in homework on time, hanging out with good friends, and going to bed before 10pm, ideally. By the end of the day, we’re exhausted and burned out from making sure kids are safe physically and mentally in this day and age. We have no leftover energy for other relationships and activities, and especially not for ourselves.
I love the idea of Eastern energy, the balance of tiger, swan, and sloth energy. Most of us run on tiger energy day in, day out, doing what we need to do to provide for the family and make sure the kids are safe, thriving, happy, and successful. No wonder by the end of the day we’re exhausted, and just mindlessly scroll, mistaking it for sloth energy. But the truth is, we feel more tired with all the stimulation, the images and lives we envy that aren’t even real.
So for total rest, can we be like a sloth? Just idly lie in bed, maybe watch a nice slow movie that touches your soul, that makes you laugh , or just close your eyes and sleep, or meditate. Many lucky mothers who have a day off from work and family tell me how they enjoy their total rest and feel much better. “I do nothing, I just stare out the window. I binge my favourite TV show. I just sleep in bed with no one and no noise around. I spent a few hours out in the garden, tending to my plants.”
What would you do for a total rest if you could have a couple of hours or a day off to yourself?