As the vibrant hues of autumn transform our surroundings, I always feel ready to embrace a period of rest and reflection. The natural world provides beautiful examples of rest during this time, as animals instinctively slow down and plants begin to change.

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It used to be that I’d spend most of this time of year battling a deluge of illnesses, desperately awaiting the half-term holidays just so I could sleep and look after myself. As I’ve mentioned, I’m no longer teaching and it’s been ridiculously refreshing to be in charge of my own time recently. I’ve spent many mornings now watching the squirrels scurry around my garden stashing their food for the coming season.

It reminds me that there are times where we need to work hard and that it will pay off later and that delayed gratification is important. Although my life has slowed down a little in comparison to teaching, I’m still working hard on different ideas I have and sometimes feel more motivated to do so because it’s work I’m doing for myself. When I was teaching, I’d often find myself working longer hours at the start of the week to make the coming days easier, but I always seemed to run into other problems that threw my plans up in the air and constantly desiring peace, quiet and rest.

Seasonal changes often inspire practices that honour rest and renewal, and preparing for different forms of introspection. I think some of that is lost in modern life, and have found myself increasingly frustrated in the constant battle for productivity and growth. To me, it seems like we have stopped being happy with “enough” and always strive for more. The past few years, I’ve spent a lot of time in a constant cycle of improvement that didn’t make a difference other than make me look busy at all times and didn’t allow time to celebrate small wins. In allowing myself opportunities to slow down and be happy with successes, no matter how small, I’ve found I’m a lot less stressed than I ever was before.

Obviously, I believe growth is important. We should be continually growing and changing. But I don’t think that needs to be applied to squeezing every last bit of profit out of something, or not taking stock that progress has been made even if it’s not the figures we want to see. When I was trying to get healthier, I had to do a lot of reflection on my attitude to myself when I lost weight. Younger me would have been dissatisfied with anything smaller than losing 2lbs a week; reflective me was happy as long as the overall trend was downwards.

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Changing Perspectives on Rest

I use this example because I worked hard to change my point of view on these issues, allowing me to have a more relaxed approach to getting healthier. It meant that getting healthier, overall, wasn’t such a slog because I wasn’t putting continuous pressure on myself. I was prepared to deal with setbacks or disappointing days. I think this has been lacking in my life for some time – from many lives, in fact – and it’s part of why everyone seems to be so unhappy.

Every time I was overwhelmed – which, admittedly, was a lot of the time – my dad would remind me that there are peaks and troughs in life, but you can’t always be working at a peak. He’s absolutely right. It’s important to work hard, of course, but I think the glorification of hustle culture has convinced so many people that we should always be working. When I was teaching, I would catch myself comparing the hours I seemed to be working with other people. When I realised I was exhausting myself and found a more time-efficient way to get work done instead of working for the sake of being seen working, I noticed snide comments about me trying to develop a work-life balance. I noticed an uptick in people bragging about how many hours they were putting in. These people never seemed happy to me, and I certainly wasn’t happy when I was working for the sake of it.

Rest is vital for our wellbeing and I’m glad I finally recognise that. I used to feel guilty wasting away my holidays by sleeping extensively, but I had deprived my body of that rest for weeks on end. Now that my life is taking a different direction, I’m fitting genuine rest into each day and it’s making a world of difference and I don’t spend multiple days in a row doing nothing.

Resting Activities

Rest looks different for everyone and the type of rest you’ll need will differ from day to day. As the days are getting shorter, colder, and darker, my rest is taking the form of herbal tea and reading, taking the time to cook a meal from scratch with my friends and doodling. Occasionally, I’ll load up Skyrim and life my best alchemist life there. I still enjoy going for walks this time of year and then coming home from a hot chocolate to warm myself back up.

As the leaves change colour and growth slows down, autumn provides a beautifully hued backdrop reminding us to pause every now and then, that it’s okay to not seek growth and busywork at every opportunity and that we don’t need to work ourselves into an early grave.

I’d love to hear more about how you allow yourself time to rest and what the season teaches you!