Why rest should be your intention for 2025

Dear friend,

I write this to you from my bed, a place I have no intention of leaving for a while. After a long 2024, one intention I am carrying with me into 2025 is to rest. 

My friend, I fear that we have been misled about why it’s so important for us to rest and rejuvenate. Whether it was our parents, school, hustle culture, influencers on social media, or just the way our world seems to be set up, rest has been de-prioritized, villainized, and viewed as a characteristic of laziness and lack of productivity. 

Here, from my bed, I wish to tell you, go lie down. 

Want to be the best you can be at work? Get good rest. Want to be a better partner? Find time to take a nap. Want to be a more present and compassionate parent? Go to sleep an hour earlier. Take the mental health day off of work. Take the vacation. Turn off the laptop and close the emails. Rest, my friend.  

It may not come so easy for us to lay our burdens and our bodies down. Speaking for myself, I know the feeling of guilt that can arise when I try to prioritize rest. There’s always something to do! But that’s the point: there will always be something to do. If we want to be good at doing any of it, we need to be functioning in a healthy, resourced way. The only way for us to do that is to rest. 

We can notice those feelings of guilt or anxiousness that arise when we take time to rest by speaking to ourselves the way we would speak to a friend in the same position. Would you make your friend feel bad for taking time to get some rest? No! So don’t do that to yourself, either. You’re just as deserving of rejuvenation as anyone else.

Some of us might have lives that are not set up for long periods of rest and relaxation, but that shouldn’t discourage us from taking moments to power down and rejuvenate where we can. Taking a few minutes during the day to do a relaxing Body Scan meditation, or some gentle deep breathing to stimulate the body’s relaxation response, can work wonders. Don’t just take my word for it: Studies show that a rested mind and body is a healthy and happy mind and body. 

Dear friend, I must leave you now. A bowl of snacks on my nightstand and reruns of The Office beckon me. It’s time for me to rest. 

As your friend, I encourage you to do the same.

With a powerful yawn (and love),

Ofosu

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