Rest Is Best! (No Offense, Breasts)Rush hour is out; rest hour is in!

Hello, all you Luscious mothers!

Anna here. My coach recently asked me what I do to rest. “I sleep,” I said.

“Right, that’s sleeping,” she pointed out.

I stared at her through the Zoom screen.

“So?” she continued to prod.

I laughed. “Explain to me this ‘rest’ you speak of.”

As we dove in, my mind flashed back to my life in Los Angeles, a city that trained me to make the most of every minute—even during L.A.’s famous rush hour traffic, because gridlock is a “perfect” location for rolling those networking calls or memorizing lines for an audition. I recalled a billboard for a chain of gyms that read:

“You Can Rest When You’re Dead.”

When DID I rest? I hadn’t always been a restless person, had I?

I then flashed even further back. To the shores of Lake Ossippee... (You had to know I was going to bring up summer camp, right? Registration is now OPEN for Camp CMGM!) At Camp Nellie Huckins, daily “Rest Hour” was sacrosanct. After lunch, every day, campers, counsellors, and staff alike would retire to our cabins or offices... to REST. We could read, nap, quietly play cards, draw, or stare at the raw wood ceilings, reading the names scrawled in marker: girls who had rested before us. For one whole hour, camp went completely silent, apart from the distant whirring of motorboats on the lake.

Mind you, when the bugle blew, marking the end of rest hour, hundreds of reenergized, bathing-suit clad girls poured out of their cabins and sprinted full tilt across the pine needle coated grounds, throwing elbows, stampeding to the waterfront and cannonballing into the lake, more than making up for their hour of quiet. But we rested.

It heartened me to know that I have it in me, and I felt suddnely capable of reconnecting to the version of me who could chill for an hour, simply for the sake of chilling. And so, I began to build rest into my day. Diving right into an hour felt like a hard pivot, so I started with 5 minutes, petting the dog. 10 minutes, laying on my back with my feet up the wall. 15 minutes, grabbing tea and reading my book for a bit. And. I. Like. It.

Look, I’m no scientist or medical professional—though back in my L.A. freeway days I did play a nurse on ER, alongside Dr. George Clooney:

Anyway, here are my findings: Rest is medicine! Not sleep--which is ALSO medicine. I’m talking about REST.

Don’t believe me? Ask the Nagoski twins, authors of the New York Times bestseller Burnout, The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle:

Mental energy, like stress, has a cycle it runs through, an oscillation from task focus to processing and back to task focus. The idea that you can use “grit” or “self-control” to stay focused and productive every minute of every day is not merely incorrect, it is gaslighting, and it is potentially damaging your brain.

- Emily & Amelia Nagoski

You may think you don’t have time for rest. My experience says the opposite. You don’t have time NOT to rest. And when better to start the process than summer?

Think about how you can add a few minutes of rest to your day. And if you need support planning, or inspiration for how to do it, we’re here for you. Look to the bottom, Luscious, to find some ways we can support you while you change lanes from rush hour to rest hour.

From our Luscious hearts to yours,

Anna & Sarah