Let me just say, though, that I’ve learned even more about rest throughout this pregnancy. Rest sounds like such a simple topic. It’s a short word. We all know what it means. It seems straightforward. 

But is it, really?

I don’t know about you, but I can ignore all kinds of important signals from my body and completely avoid resting. I’ve also had to learn how to rest. I’ve had to learn how to give myself permission to actually rest for the amount of time my body needs or my soul desires. I’ve had to learn to trust that resting enough will not take away from my creating, doing, and income-earning.

Now that I have a kid using my uterus as a gymnasium, I have a whole new perspective on resting. In the first trimester, it seems that all my body wanted to do was rest. I went to bed at eight pm. I took naps. I could barely lug my body anywhere, much less shower and put on matching clothes. It seemed, to my mind, quite extreme. My mind had many freak-outs, which went a little like this:

Oh my God! You are such a sloth!

No one else is this lethargic when pregnant – you are a pregnancy wimp!

Get it together, for crying out loud!

Aaaaaagh! There is so much to do!

My mind has always resisted rest, but I thought I was pretty good at listening to my body and letting it lead the way with regards to rest. Until it asked for more. Seriously? How much rest can a person really need?

I had a choice. Walk my talk and keep listening to my body, honor its true needs, and slow down even more, or keep up with everything and ignore my rest requirements.

So, I coached myself and settled in to the realization that I’d need to change how I was doing life, in general, to accommodate the need for more rest. I had to work with my mind to release self-judgment and imagined comments from others who might think me lazy. I had to coach myself around actual comments from people. One person (who must not realize the dangers of sharing opinions with hormonal and grumpy pregnant women) said that I was “more sensitive” than other pregnant women. Amazingly, I did not punch this person, for which I give myself much credit. Instead, I felt my emotions (um…anger!) and then coached it out.

Really, so what if I am more sensitive than someone else? What if I do need more rest than 50% of other pregnant women? The point is that this is my body, my experience, and my journey. I must honor what I actually need, and truly practice self-kindness. Taking care of me is even more important now, because in doing so, I am taking care of my daughter.

In the end, I decided to make some changes. There are some emails it has taken me a month to answer. Literally. I struck things off the to-do list that weren’t essential. I delegated more, hired more help, and asked for more help. I let walking become my main form of exercise, because my body really didn’t like anything else. I took longer to create what I wanted to create, and I created less than usual. I pushed back my website launch. I stopped coaching for a while. I didn’t hang out with friends much, even though I love them all.

Now, I’m in the final phase of the second trimester. I still need a ton of rest. I still can’t work at my usual pace. I can only prepare the baby’s nursery in tiny little steps. I forget things, make mistakes, and get behind a lot. And that’s just how it is.

I’ve learned that huge amounts of rest are worth it. My mind can judge amounts and label me and play all kinds of tricks. I just have to thank it for its opinion and then ask my body and soul what they really, truly need.

And with that, I’m off to take a nap.