relaxing equals failure

Recently I had a Thinking session with a colleague and my thoughts turned to ‘downtime’.  What was it about downtime that I resisted, that we all resist?  There’s something here about resting and why we don’t give ourselves time to do that. 
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My colleague said that downtime brought up images of machinery, and that downtime meant that things were ‘switched off’ or perhaps even broken and needed mending.  So do we resist downtime because it implies that WE are switched off or need mending?  

I noticed that all of the words related to rest started with ‘re’: relax, recuperate, retreat. (I’m sure the wordsmiths amongst us will tell me why that is so).  Words that are frowned upon in this busy, driven world we live in and for many have negative connotations  - especially ‘retreat’ which conjures up visions of defeat. 

It's too dangerous to relax

It’s personal to each one of us: after all a word is only a label and only we as individuals know consciously or unconsciously what that means to us.  Should I give downtime another label?
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Mixed with that then is how it might fit in seasonally.  We’ve gone through autumn and are now into winter and our energies are depleted after a holiday season filled with both emotional and financial energies being spent.  You’d argue then that now would be a time to go into rest mode, to conserve our energies ready for a Spring revival.  What is it then that drives me, drives us to not find ‘retreating’ a comfortable prospect?

We praise effort but not relaxation

Yes there’s something around us being in a working environment that prizes achievement and hitting targets, above the human.  There’s also societal expectations that we have to strive, to work harder to be able to succeed – and to pay our bills with the cost of living crisis upon us.

What then of rest?  Thinking it through for me, I had long planned to have a quieter time for January but when the blank pages, the lack of meetings logged on outlook face me, I automatically look for things to fill the blanks.  I know I’m a task orientated person and thinking about it, I assume that even when we’re resting we’re doing ‘something’.  When I read or take a walk I’m consciously and unconsciously recognising that it’s a ‘task’ I’m undertaking to improve my physical and mental health.  The only time I truly switch off is when I’m entranced by a particularly strong performance on stage, or a song that sweeps in and through me.  Is that ‘downtime’?

Is that the same for you as an individual or a leader?  Is it the same for your peers, your team members?  Do you truly rest?   Do you take advantage of the quieter times or do you fill them up?  And what makes us fill up these gaps?  Is it fear?

Is it fear of being found out, that if we’re not doing something that we’re failing?  That, like a machine, we’re ‘switched off’ or ‘broken’.  That would certainly fit in with the environment in which we’re situated; a workplace and society that praises effort but not relaxation.​

Not allowing time to reset is detrimental to our physical and mental  health

What can we do about it then?  How can we balance the need within us to do a good job as a worker, parent, sibling and the need for us to have our own equilibrium and allow our brains to reset?  That’s what I love about Thinking, the Thinking Environment.  You find a place where you can let your mind take the path it wants, to release the stress and tensions that are negatively driving us.  It allows you to recognise the power and beauty of the energies and wisdom that is inside you. 

And what better time to indulge yourselves in thinking, in dreaming, than during this winter season.  A season where we, and nature, nurtures the nascent life waiting to burst forth when the energies of Spring galvanises us once again.

So, along with my colleague Caroline Homfrey we use this time of the year to nurture our own thoughts and dreams.  We recognise the natural force of rest and welcome what it can bring to us.  We wait for the Spring and our own Retreat where we can bring the energies of the season to those who join us for the day.  Will that be you I wonder?