Resting Without Waiting to Have Earned It: This Month's Self-Coaching Exercise
- Aug 8
- 2 min read
Resting Without Waiting to Have Earned It: This Month's Exercise
This year, I chose to live in gentleness, and I'm inviting you to explore, with me, a new way to make it real every month.
After inner peace (January), the words we speak to ourselves with love (February), a less cluttered life (March), reconnecting with my body (April), honoring my emotional truth (May), setting even more boundaries (June), and creating for and in joy (July), this August I'm inviting myself (and you too, if you'd like) into something that's simpler to say than to do: resting without waiting to have earned it.
Not resting because we're exhausted. Not resting because we earned it through hard work. Resting, just because we feel like it. Just because we exist, far beyond everything we do or don't do.
Why This Exercise Works
I was taught, without anyone ever saying it outright, that rest is earned. That you have to check every box on the To-Do List first, use up all your energy, prove you worked hard, before allowing yourself a break.
The result: even on vacation, a small voice in my head keeps counting the tasks still waiting.
And yet, if a friend, close or not, told me she was exhausted, I wouldn't ask what she did to earn the right to catch her breath. I'd simply tell her to rest.
So why not write to myself what I'd say to her so easily? Am I not supposed to love myself as I love my neighbor, and be my own best friend?
August's Journaling Exercise
This month, I'm giving you (us) three simple steps.
First, write yourself a short note, as if you were speaking to your best friend. Remind yourself how amazing you are, how your energy and determination deserve to be supported, no conditions attached.
Then, think back to a recent moment when you felt truly relaxed, even briefly. An afternoon, a nap, a silence. Anchor that feeling in detail: where were you, what did you hear, what did you feel? You'll be able to reconnect with it whenever you need to, long after summer ends.
Finally, open your EstellyHappy notebook and answer this question:
What am I allowing myself today, without having earned it?
No need to answer in ten pages. Sometimes one line is enough to remember what feels good.
Carnet de Notes Positives Madras & Colibris can hold this note. It's available in the shop.
I'll meet you again at the end of the month on the EstellyHappy blog to share how I lived out this exercise, and this August, myself.
To never miss an article, subscribe to the EstellyHappy newsletter.
And to accompany you this summer, the Carnet de Notes Positives Madras & Colibris and the Marque-Pages Madras & Pearls are waiting for you in the shop.
Comments