Rest IS doing something

For most of my life, I thought rest was what you did after you’d earned it.

After the work was done.After everyone else was okay. After you’d pushed yourself to the point your body stopped giving you a choice.

It’s taken years of unlearning to realise the truth that sounds simple but feels radical:

Rest is not the absence of doing.

Rest is doing something! Something powerful, essential, and scientifically proven.

When we rest, our bodies and brains aren’t shutting down. They’re shifting modes. They’re switching into the state where all the invisible, life-preserving processes finally get the space to happen.

And this isn’t “fluffy self-care.”

This is biology.

This is neuroscience.

This is survival.

Your Nervous System Needs Rest to Function

We spend so much time in fight-or-flight that many of us mistake it for normal. But the body was never designed to live there. When you rest, you activate the parasympathetic nervous system - the branch responsible for repair, regulation, digestion, immune strength, and emotional processing.

Rest literally:

• Lowers cortisol and adrenaline

• Rebalances heart rate and blood pressure

• Allows your brain to shift out of threat-mode

• Opens the “window of tolerance” so you can think clearly again

• Supports emotional regulation

• Improves memory, problem-solving, and creativity

If you feel foggy, overwhelmed, or “not yourself,” it’s not because you’re weak. It’s because your nervous system hasn’t had access to this state in far too long.

Your Brain Is Busy When You’re Resting

This is one of my favourite facts - When you are resting - not scrolling, not solving, just resting - a network in your brain called the Default Mode Network lights up. This network is responsible for:

• Integration

• Reflection

• Meaning-making

• Emotional healing

• Self-understanding

• Creativity

• Processing memories and experiences

In other words... Your brain does essential emotional and cognitive work only when you are not “doing” anything else.

You are literally reorganising your inner world. That’s why rest feels like “nothing”… until suddenly, you feel more like yourself again.

Your Body Repairs Itself Only in Rest

Cells repair, tissues heal, your immune system rebuilds, and inflammation decreases when your body is not under stress. If you push through exhaustion, you interrupt these processes. If you rest, you support them.

Research shows that consistent rest:

• Strengthens immune response

• Reduces chronic inflammation

• Improves hormonal balance

• Lowers long-term health risks

• Supports stable mood and emotional well-being

You are not being lazy. You are literally keeping yourself alive.

Rest Is Productive - But Not In the Capitalistic Way We’ve Been Taught

We’ve been conditioned to see productivity as output. But rest is output - just in a way that doesn’t look like a to-do list.

Rest produces:

• Clarity

• Regulation

• Creativity

• Self-awareness

• Patience

• Resilience

• Energy

• Capacity

• Care

Without these, nothing else works.

Rest is not what you do when everything else is done.Rest is what allows everything else to be possible.

If Your Body Demands Rest, It’s Not Dysfunction - It’s Communication

Your body isn’t trying to sabotage you. It is trying to keep you within your limits.

When you need rest, it means:

• Your nervous system is overloaded

• Your brain is processing more than you realise

• Your system is working harder, not less

• You are carrying emotional labour, cognitive load, sensory load, or stress load

Rest isn’t the system shutting down. Rest is the system stabilising.

So the next time you’re resting…

Instead of telling yourself:

“I’m being lazy.”

“I should be doing more.”

“I’m wasting time.”

Try this:

“I’m helping my brain integrate.”

“I’m reducing inflammation.”

“I’m repairing my nervous system.”

“I’m supporting my future self.”

“I’m doing the essential work that nobody else can see.”

Because you are!! Rest is NOT nothing.

Rest IS doing something - something deeply important, biologically necessary, and profoundly brave in a world that glorifies exhaustion.

And remember - rest doesn’t look the same for everyone. For some people, rest is stillness and quiet. For others, especially many neurodivergent nervous systems, rest is found through movement: walking, pacing, stretching, stimming, crafting, organising, or simply being in motion enough to let the mind settle. The kind of rest you need is shaped by your individual profile, your lived experience, your biology, and what brings YOUR system into balance. There is no “right” way to rest - only the way that genuinely restores you. What matters is learning to notice what your body responds to, honouring the version of rest that feels good, and giving yourself permission to weave together the balance of rest types your nervous system needs. Rest is personal. Rest is unique. And when you find the version that aligns with who you are, it becomes not just recovery - but nourishment.

Resting IS doing something!