Wrestling with Rest | Why our fear of rest is counter-productive and what works better with Anitza Martins

Think about that friend of yours who’s always busy. 

If you want to go to lunch or plan anything with this person, you need to do it a month in advance. 

A spontaneous cup of coffee in the middle of the afternoon? Forgettaboutit. 

And because this friend maintains such a full schedule, there’s a greater level of value that you attach to their time. 

Or maybe, this person is you. 

Squeezing everything you possibly can into that calendar square because when it’s full, you feel…well, what exactly? 

Important? Productive? Valued? Effective? 

Here’s the thing… there’s a difference between good work and overworking. To see it, you have to step outside of the busyness box and ask yourself what’s really necessary. 

And most importantly, you have to sit with the answers to find out where your values of productivity came from in the first place. 

This week, the tables are turned as Anitza interviews Karlee in order to dig deeper into this season of rest. In a society where we’ve been conditioned to associate busyness with productivity, we have to step back and ask ourselves…what’s so scary about resting? 

In this episode, you’ll learn why good work depends on rest, and how to recognize the difference between quality output and flat-out overworking. You’ll reflect on your level of self-sacrifice, flipping the narrative around busyness to challenge both societal and cultural perceptions about what makes you valuable in the world. You’ll also learn how to think about the concept of time in a way that can help you reserve more of it, allowing space for more joy. 

You really don’t have to do it all. But you need rest. 

If busyness and self-sacrifice are woven into your identity, and if “doing it all” makes you feel more valued in the world, then this episode is for you. 

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Why building in time for rest is so essential to the creative process (3:23)
• Grading your level of self-sacrifice (7:21)
• Learning to distinguish good work from overworking (8:58)
• What it really means when you feel like you don’t have enough time (20:42)
• Why doing more sometimes means doing less (28:50)

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

Book: Stirring the Mud: On Swamps, Bogs, and Human Imagination by Barbara Hurd

Send your Audio Comments and Questions to [e-mail]

Connect With Karlee: 

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram

Messy and Magnificent is produced by the folx at Ginni Media.

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