Editor’s Note: All opinion section content reflects the views of the individual author only and does not represent a stance taken by The Collegian or its editorial board.
As a student who spends lots of time with other students, the most common thing I hear, and the thing I’m the most tired of hearing, is, “I’m so busy; I never have time to relax.”
However, do any of us actually know how to rest properly? Do we know how to incorporate leisure into our hectic lives with class schedules, assignments, work and other commitments? After four years of being a student and living in the world of academics, I’ve realized something I don’t think most people understand: Genuine rest requires effort.
Perhaps it’s important to define rest before we move forward. In the broadest sense, rest is something that can be done to enter into a greater calmness and peace of mind than is typical.
I must highlight the stark difference between work and rest to understand that we actually need both. Work is what is required of us in order to survive, but rest is what is required of us in order to live. You cannot have one without the other, and a particular balance must be reached. Too much work is perverse to our nature but so is too much rest. In order for rest to feel well-deserved, you must first work hard enough to earn it.
Consider the feeling after a really good workout. You are sweaty and tired, and your legs are sore. It was extremely challenging. And gosh, it feels so good to lie on the couch after your shower, eat a snack and read a book.
Or the feeling you get after waking up early, attending a full day of classes, going to work and finally returning home in the evening. That is a full day with little to no moments of rest. And when you finally crash on your bed, put on comfy clothes, get a snack and call a friend, it is so well deserved.
Consider one final scenario: You sleep in as late as 11 a.m., and before even stepping out of bed, you open your phone and order breakfast through DoorDash. You stay in your pajamas all day, alternating between scrolling through Instagram, texting your friends, watching TV and laying on your bed or couch. What I’m describing here is not self-care and does not actually lead to a greater peace of mind. It is similar to the symptoms of depression or burnout. It is lethargy. It is rotting.
How often are we rotting instead of resting?
Not only should rest be earned, but it also needs to be intentional. I know I often fall into the ease of returning home from classes, crashing on the couch and scrolling through Instagram for an hour before making dinner. And honestly, this never actually helps me feel well-rested. Rather, I must expend effort to rest well.
In today’s culture, it is so easy to numb our brains instead of actually engaging in rest. It is easy to lie in bed and scroll. It is easy to try and forget the harshness of the world by filling our minds with short-form videos over and over again. The choice to rot is typically an avoidance of discomfort rather than true rest.
It is often actually challenging to get off the couch, take a shower and get ready for bed. It is hard to make an effort to do something. But once we engage in it, even if just for a little bit, it’s typically much more gratifying and truly pleasurable than doing nothing.
As backward as it may seem, the effort taken to intentionally rest will lead to true leisure. It’s the effort to take a long, hot shower before bed or to spend two hours baking a new pastry. The effort to open a book and avoid the notifications on your phone. The effort to go for a run so your head feels clearer. The effort to write that poem sitting in the back of your mind. The effort to engage with something real that exists outside of a screen.
Leisure is not merely the absence of work. It is the presence of an action or activity that leads to a deeper peace of mind.
Allow me to offer a final word of compassion — I get it. I have a full class schedule, I work multiple jobs and I can also spend far too much time scrolling instead of actually resting. I know that it is hard to allow yourself to rest. We live in a culture that often only rewards hard work and makes it difficult to embrace gratifying, intentional rest.
I also don’t think it’s necessary to condemn all phone or social media use when there is a time and place for a little bit of scrolling. But I promise you doing real, fulfilling work that leaves us tired and weary is good. It is good to feel soreness in our legs after a long walk. It is good to feel drained and poured out after a day of serving others. It is good to feel true exhaustion because it is only then that we can fully enter deep calmness and peace of mind.
The next time you get home after a long day, take the extra effort to engage with something real in the world instead of the cheap mimicry of reality found in your phone. The more that you are able to give, the better you will be able to receive.
Reach Anastasia Holy at letters@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.
