Rest, the partner of creativity | Daybreak Note #208 & 142 | July 19, 2021
I'm reading a book that argues that rest isn't a luxury, isn't a sign of laziness, isn't a mark of low productivity, but actually the necessary partner of a creative life.
Good morning, dear!
I hope you’ve had a restful weekend, the kind of break that restores your calm and resets your feelings. I’ve been on a long break, a vacation down to the beach and baseball and crabs and up to Maine for blueberries and puffin sightings. I’m feeling hopeful again, a feeling I had been missing. (I’m working on a Daybreak Note about emotions for next week.)
For this week, here’s a favorite from the archive, with a long-standing recommendation for a book that changed the way I think about rest.
This Daybreak Note was first published on January 16, 2019, a frazzled time, pre-pandemic, with some minor 2021 updates:
So much of our days in America are spent dashing from one productive task to another. Meetings, groceries, emails, health appointments, work travel. It might seem ceaseless. We're constantly peppered with things we should be doing — the gym, scheduling that conference call, laundry, the permission slip, the forgotten bill.
And rest — glorious sleep, but also simple downtime — doesn't have an equivalent champion. Napping at 2 p.m.? Going to bed at 8 p.m.? A 2-hour lunch? A long walk mid-morning? Our culture tends to look down at such habits.
But I'm reading a book that argues that rest isn't a luxury, isn't a sign of laziness, isn't a mark of low productivity, but actually the necessary partner of a creative life. That rest powers your best work and self. That the titans of great contributions in our history made time for long walks, leisurely meals, deep sleep.
In Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less, author Alex Soojung-Kim Pang argues: "[Charles] Darwin and [his accomplished and prolific neighbor John] Lubbock, and many other creative and productive figures, weren't accomplished despite their leisure, they were accomplished because of it."
What a startling, enthralling, compelling notion.
He lists examples of world leaders taking regular afternoon naps during wartime and brilliant scientists taking hours-long walks every day. The examples are so vivid. I shifted my view of rest because of this book and let go of guilt around breaks, which are actually required for your brain to work at a different level on thorny questions. Think of how a 10-minute walk between meetings can open up time for a new important insight. (This is why revelations can arrive in the shower!)
Alex emphasizes:
"Work and rest are not polar opposites. You cannot talk about rest without also talking about work. Writing about only one is like writing a romance and naming only one of the lovers. Rest is not work's adversary. Rest is work's partner. They complete and complete each other."
May you carve out more rest in the week ahead, and feel the difference.
With love,
Brianne