I had the pleasure of taking two weeks of holidays recently.  Our plans were ambitious – 5 days of sailing off the West Coast and then 5 days of camping and hiking in the Rocky Mountains with the rest of the time being used for traveling to said locations.  As usual for me, the weeks before the holidays were crammed with work and tying up loose ends leaving me extremely tired by the time we left.  A few more late nights and early mornings as we negotiated driving and flying schedules and I arrived at the marina feeling as lifeless as an old dishcloth!

Our first morning of sailing was pretty uneventful and by the time we finished lunch, I just couldn’t keep my head up anymore so I went below for a nap.

“I’ve been sleeping for two hours??” I said in amazement when my husband woke me.

My intention for a 20 minute nap had expanded to over two hours but instead of enjoying the deliciousness of a long, refreshing nap my inner critic immediately began berating me.  Two hours??  What’s wrong with you?  You should have been helping with the sailing.  What’s everyone else thinking about you? You don’t have time for sleeping!

Have you ever had this thought?  I don’t have time for sleep.  Most of us are sleep deprived and most of us bring it on ourselves.  Instead of resting during the day or going to bed at night we push through our tiredness using caffeine or food or other more potent (and dangerous) chemicals.  The fear that we are not being productive, not contributing – in other words that we are not enough – pushes us to do one more thing; I’ll just put in one last load of laundry, I’ll just check my messages/emails one more time, I’m really tired but I should straighten up that sock drawer…which turns into 2, 3, 4 or more hours of work.

Go to bed! Listen to your body.  Listen to your heart.  You are meant to do deeply meaningful work while you are here and you can’t do it if you don’t have any energy! Let go of the myriad of tasks that you think you should be doing, step out of the vortex of administrivia and give yourself the gift of regenerative sleep.  The more rested you are, the more your joy will expand resulting in a much more meaningful and satisfying life!  Nighty, night!