Why prioritising rest will change your life (especially if you’re peri-menopausal)

We live in a society where exhaustion seems to be seen as a badge of honour. Where we’ve been led to believe that we have to be productive at all costs and taking rest is often seen as selfish, lazy or a weakness.

I had many years where I was sucked into that toxic productivity mindset and I ended up with chronic pain, recurring laryngitis (at its height I had 11 weeks in one year where I couldn’t speak), I felt unhealthy and sluggish and was always tired.

So I started to question if there was a more healthy way to live?

This was when yoga and mindfulness entered my life and my healing journey began. But it was when I discovered Yoga Nidra and Restorative Yoga that things really started to change.

The first Yoga Nidra I ever practised blew me away. It’s extraordinary how rested you feel after just 20 mins.

Taking nourishing rest regularly has now become a really important part of my wellbeing toolkit. It is one of the most important ways in which I care for my body, mind and soul. For me rest includes gentle, restful yoga practices and meditation, alongside energy healing - both self-healing and treatments with others.

What I have realised through my journey, is that we often (myself included) keep ourselves busy so that we don’t have time and space to process our emotions and trauma. We keep them pushed down and keep ourselves busy hoping that they will go away and resolve themselves. I’m afraid my experience is that this doesn’t happen and not dealing with whatever was going on in my life just exacerbated my stress levels and dysregulated my nervous system. When this happens over a period, this then leads to your body and mind feeling dis-eased and can ultimately lead to illness and disease.

What I have found is that when I come to stillness in a safe and secure environment, and allow my body to rest, it allows my mind to rest, then my nervous system can start to rest and my stress levels can reduce. It is at this point where I find healing starts. This might be physical, emotional or mental healing.

Now that I am in peri-menopause rest is even more important to me. During peri-menopause and menopause, our body and mind is under greater stress due to the hormonal fluctuations. If we are also already stressed due to our lifestyle choices this will cause our symptoms to be more pronounced and severe.

I often think about teenagers and how much rest they take. This is probably the same amount as we need during peri-menopause due to the hormonal changes, but let’s be honest none of us do!

So now, I prioritise rest, as I know it’s just not worth not doing it. In addition to regular rest throughout the week, if I have a busy period coming up I make sure I plan in plenty of rest afterwards and I also now take pre-emptive rest. This one is fairly new, but if I know I have a few busy days ahead, or I am going to be with a lot of people, I rest in advance, so that I am fully prepared and energised for whatever I am going to do.

I can honestly say that I feel healthier now than I have at anytime during my life and I know that regular rest is an important part of this.

If you feel like you need more rest in your life, my Rest and Destress Bundle is available now to support you on your own rest journey. Find out more here.