How much rest do we really need?
The sound of that alarm in the morning is gut-wrenching. It’s the signal that your beautiful sleep must come to an abrupt end and you have to drag yourself out of your warm cocoon to get ready for work. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel for you know that you can reward yourself at the end of your working day by jumping back into bed with a packet of crips, or 5, and scroll through your Twitter feed with Netflix on in the background. This used to be my daily routine after work and the lie I told myself was that I deserved this and needed this “rest” because I just worked for 8 hours. The problem is that my job is an office job so it’s hardly physically taxing, but the thought of doing something after work seemed unbearable.
I have watched those motivational videos on Youtube that say the key to a successful life is waking up at 4 am, getting in a workout whilst everyone is in bed and then going to work. I tried this, but it was unsustainable. I am not a morning person at the best of times and there was no way I was getting up every day at 4 am, not for love nor money. When you see people like David Goggins running ungodly amounts before you’ve even wept the sleep from your eyes it can be disheartening. There’s no way I can ever reach those standards! Do I even want to? I am no ex-navy seal or ultra-marathon worker, I am just a normal guy who works in an office Monday to Friday and lives for the weekends, that was “my truth” as some would say…but it didn’t need to be!
I get home around 19:00 and would go to bed around 00:00 so that’s 5 hours a day I was wasting on my laptop/phone/TV that I could have been using productively. Just because I don’t do my workout in the morning doesn’t mean I can’t do it at any other point in the day. I decided I needed to get fitter, become more self-disciplined and use my time wisely so that I no longer lived for the weekends alone but instead cherished the whole week.
I needed to find something that would keep me entertained and hungry to go every week, so I decided to try two new things in Jiu-Jitsu and yoga, but it could have been anything. At the start, it seemed a chore, but once I got used to the routine I started to enjoy the structure it gave me and weeks started to fly by. Trying something completely new also helped inject me with enthusiasm for the week and soon my energy levels increased and I no longer felt guilty about resting because now I had earned it. However, most importantly of all I found that my mind became more peaceful and I started to feel better about myself and self-confidence started to grow. I have also found that the lessons learned in Jiu-Jitsu and yoga are transferrable and have helped me in other pursuits, both professional and personal. For example, when I started Jiu-Jitsu I was absolutely useless and was getting rag-dolled by everyone, and I am still pretty bad, but I have learned a few tricks and even got my first submission which was a huge moment. The lesson I took from that was that we are all awful when we start something and the end goal can seem unachievable, but if you are prepared to grind and put in the work you can see improvements and all of a sudden reaching the proverbial mountain top becomes a tangible possibility. The synergy between the body and the mind is startling and as I mentioned in my latest piece “Feed the mind and body to nourish the soul” I strongly believe that exercise coupled with some form of meditation is the secret to truly feeling better within ourselves.
Some of my friends have also realised they were wasting their evenings and now have a new routine that allows them to use those precious hours after work to truly unwind, rather than being glued to a screen. One of my friends has become an audiobook aficionado and he goes on long walks after work whilst listening to one of his many audiobooks. My point is, you don’t have to do something strenuous like martial arts to make the most of the time you have in the week, you just need to find it fulfilling and interesting. Then, once you come home you can sit in front of the TV, if you want, and put your feet up in the knowledge that you have made the most of the time you’ve got.
By Seb Siracusa
