What winter teaches us about taking a rest?

After the trees lost all their leaves, and we learned from fall, here we are in the heart of the winter. The days got much shorter than the nights, and the wind, the cold and the rain made their way into our cities and our towns.
The nature seems to have entered a sleeping process. The animals are hiding, and the trees seem frozen. The earth is moist or covered with snow, and the clouds are thick and grey, successfully hiding the sun.

As the night becomes long and cold, the winter is a wonderful opportunity to follow to the call of nature and to slow down.

When nature is resting

Our extremely busy lives and our never ending to-do lists could make us totally forget that we also, like the trees, need to take a rest. After Christmas and New Year parties, we may feel tired, but we have the tendency to ignore that feeling, and to try to continue on the same rhythm. But in our modern culture, resting can be felt as a total waste of time, as laziness and a lack of productivity. That is probably why we experience a lot of stress and burnout. However, resting has a lot of benefits, not only for our mental and physical health, but also for our life in general.

Why taking a rest is so precious

1. Relaxing
Resting is necessary for our body and for our mind. We need rest to feel good, motivated and productive. Following the seasons, is a perfect way of getting cyclic rest and to not to forget to make a break. It is a regenerative process.

2. Reflecting
Resting is a precious opportunity to stop running within our routine and to take some distance from our daily life. It is a very propitious moment to question our habits and to investigate in our way of living. Maybe there are things we would like to change, or things we would like to stop doing, and things we would like to start doing. Taking a long and relaxed time to think about those things can be very rewarding and meaningful.

3. Goal setting
Resting is a perfect moment we can take to rethink our lives, our present situation and our goals. It is the time to calmly think about the next coming months, and to imagine how we would like to live them. It is the time for strategic and creative thinking.

4. Focusing
Resting is an opportunity to readjust and enhance our focus. We often set to ourselves very noble goals and we start with very strong motivation. Then, as time passes by, our minds slowly get hijacked. We get very easily distracted from our target and we lose our focus. Our attention becomes dispersed and vulnerable. Hence, taking the time to rest and to readjust our focus is very beneficial.

5. Awareness
Resting is also an opportunity to bring our attention to the present, and to reconnect with our precious life on earth. It is a moment for meditation and awareness. With calming our mind, we can develop the feeling of being happy and content. We develop the vision that there is no reason to hurry and nowhere to go; the present moment is where our ultimate destination is. We take the time to enjoy it and to connect with our self and our dear ones.