Issue #60: The truth about prioritizing rest

You have to give up something to gain something better.

When I first decided to position myself in the wellness space as someone who is pushing more women entrepreneurs to prioritize rest, I wanted to dig deeper into WHY it was so hard for many of us to just…do nothing. Through my research, I found that we often hesitate to rest out of guilt, because in many ways rest feels like a privilege, and because we often don’t believe that we are worthy of it.

But a topic that also comes up that I don’t believe we talk about enough is how prioritizing rest often requires some type of sacrifice. Time, money, relationships, etc. When we finally commit to prioritizing ourselves, we don’t magically receive another hour in our day that can be dedicated solely to self-care. So that means, something else in our day/life will have to be moved or removed completely.

In pursuit of truly caring for yourself, you will have to sacrifice something.

How do we decide what should be sacrificed and what is non-negotiable? Well, that’s not always the easiest decision to make because as women, we inherently believe that we can do it all. But doing it all and prioritizing rest is not typically a great match.

When it comes to figuring out what needs to stay and what needs to go, I believe that we need to reflect on the current season that we are in. If you had to rate each area of your life (emotional, physical, spiritual, business, finances, family/friends, etc) on a scale from 1 to 5 (1 being the lowest), which areas require more of you right now? To be honest with you, my lowest scoring areas right now would be finances and family. While the other areas of my life are really important to me, in addition to prioritizing myself, getting my finances in order and nurturing my relationships are my main priorities in this current season. So the other areas may temporarily have to take a back seat.

Is it easy? Hell no. Because again, there is a lot of guilt and FOMO that comes up when I don’t feel like I have my hands wrapped around every single part of my life. But in this season, I have to prioritize the areas that need me the most. Which means, a temporary sacrifice must be made.

That may look like, being strict about my work hours so that my evening time can be dedicated to my family. Or investing in a new financial platform that will help me to better track spending and monthly expenses. While it doesn’t feel good at the moment, I know that in the long run, the time I spend on these specific areas will be worth it.

If the thought of making a sacrifice is causing you some anxiety, remember that seasons change. What you’re sacrificing now won’t always be at the bottom of your priority list. As you gain more balance in what you are focusing on now, you can eventually shift the scales to the other areas of your life that you have been sacrificing.

I say this all the time, but you can’t give every area of your life 100% of your focus at the same time and still take really good care of yourself. If you are not well, then nothing will ever get the attention that it deserves.

I’d love to know, what do you feel like you are having to sacrifice in this season?

Cheers to a restful week!

– Alisha

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

GOOD FINDS

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🧸 You’re not the only one who has kid shit everywhere. But maybe we should embrace it while we can?

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💰 How do you have a social life but also stick to a budget? Because we know brunch can get expensive!

DON’T FORGET TO BREATHE