What is rest?

Meditation is seen often as a restful thing to do, however in reality stopping and focusing the mind is often not restful. There are often suggestions given to stay awake, ‘fall awake’ (Kabat-Zinn 2013) through attention, keeping the eyes open, raising a hand and other strategies that are perhaps not restful and point to a different intention.

Claudia Hammond’s book The Art of Rest (2019) describes a large study on rest by the Wellcome Foundation and identifies that while mindfulness meditation is seen by some to be rest, it does come 10th in the top 10 strategies people use. This is to me unsurprising (perhaps surprising it makes the top 10!) as mindfulness is of itself not intended to do anything apart from bring a gentle awareness and curiosity with a light intention.

Mindfulness can offer a way into rest for the exhausted because it is about awareness. It is not about achieving a particular state, it is a compassionate and embodied tending to this moment. This can support us when we are feeling overwhelmed and break down ways of coming to a rest into very doable chunks of action.