MAPLETON – Sit down, even if it isn’t finished.
That’s a message Alison Brown says a lot of people need to hear in a fast-paced world where the value of rest is often thrown to the wayside.
It’s also the title of her newest book, which she released on Sept. 22.
The book offers a blueprint for people to follow to help them slow down and better incorporate rest into their lives.
“I had no idea that I was racing through my life at full speed throttle,” frantically trying to get everything done at an unsustainable pace, Brown said.
Even falling asleep at the wheel as a teenager, after pulling an all-nighter to study for exams, and crashing straight into a rest stop sign between Teviotdale and Harriston, wasn’t enough to convince Brown to slow down.
It was a casual comment from her son that made her realize something needed to change.
Brown was exhausted, so she laid down for a quick rest in the middle of the day.
Her son saw her and was concerned, immediately asking if she was sick.
When she said no, he asked “‘then why are you lying down? What’s wrong?’” Brown said.
That’s when she realized that while she’d done a great job modelling hard work, she had not shown her sons the importance of rest.
“It’s good to have a good work ethic,” Brown said. “But we also need to slow down and have a healthy work balance or we will absolutely crash.”
She compared rest to charging a cell phone – “we would never expect a cellphone to function if we didn’t plug it in to charge it,” she said.
“Expecting physical bodies and minds to function without recharging – without plugging back in and unplugging from work at all directions we are pulled in – I think is a lot to ask of ourselves.”
Brown said slowing down looks different for different people. For her, it includes incorporating more stretching into her exercise routine and taking time to pause, breath and be still in her body and mind.
It also means unplugging – “setting my cellphone down and parting ways with it for a while,” and carving out time to get out into nature, she said.
For Brown, rest includes prayer, and for others it includes meditation, she said.
“Rest is a verb – it doesn’t necessarily mean stopping completely,” she said.
Brown hasn’t perfected incorporating enough rest into her life, and the book is “speaking from a standpoint of being very much a work in progress,” she said.
Brown noted she still juggles many responsibilities as a mentor, mom, wife and business owner, but she’s learned to prioritize rest.
She’s learned to book rest time into her life – “instead of looking at my schedule and filling it to the max, I block off hours for rest.”
And once a month, she schedules a “do nothing day,” during which she might read or go for a walk, taking time to enjoy the day instead of racing to the next thing.
Resting sometimes means letting things pile up for a little, leaving the dishes, laundry, housework and emails for another time, she said.
That’s what the book title means: rest is important, even when the tasks aren’t all complete.
Since integrating more rest in her life, Brown said she feels “more mental calm, more clarity and more peace.”
This peace includes peace in her mind, physical peace, emotional peace and spiritual peace, Brown said.
Her book is available to purchase online, or in person at New U Personal Training Studio in Listowel and Living Waters book store in Elmira.
