The Importance of Rest: Taking A Little Break…

  Gah! Who’d have thought this blog post would have come around so soon? It feels like yesterday Joe and I were staring at each other, speechless, beaming and a little teary in the bathroom, both in paint-splattered clothes from tackling our hallway DIY- after finding out we’d become parents in early 2021. Which, unbelievably, is just around the corner.

It feels surreal, exciting, hugely unknown, completely magical and a tiny bit overwhelming – but in order to set a proper grown up out of office, I wanted to write a little blog post about properly taking a break and stepping away for a short while whilst I settle into motherhood (which nope, I can’t believe I’ve just typed either).

I think if we’ve learnt anything over the last year, it’s that rest doesn’t, and shouldn’t have to be a reward (which I saw on a brilliant Juliet Cobodo quote and swiftly noted down). It’s necessary- both mentally and physically- and I’m trying to lean into this time with full permission, properly unwind and know that you lovely lot will (hopefully) still be waiting right here when I get back. Rest isn’t something you earn. You don’t get it after a week of pre-filming IGTV’s, filing accounts on Xero, completing a full to-do list every day or doing a whole renovation. It’s something you have to give yourself permission to have, as a necessity- and something that is so much more than the several hours we might try and get each evening or a dabble every now and again in material self care.

One message I received on Instagram from a lovely lady said it’s a little like stepping off of the racetrack and onto the grass. Knowing life goes on, and it’s okay to soak it up from a different perspective- because it’ll all still be there afterwards.

Helen, the brilliant brains behind Lionheart Magazine and all round good egg sent me this post she’d written about shutting up shop two weeks before giving birth- and one thing I could resonate endlessly with was how difficult, as a freelancer, sometimes locating the off button really can be. When your job is based online, in a fast paced environment like Instagram- it can sometimes feel like everyone is zooming ahead on the content carousel- when actually the reality is quite different. We’re all muddling along, pregnant or not- and like Helen said- just because you’re not necessarily present online, it so often makes space for being present somewhere else in your life.

‘Leaving one part of your world for a bit and throwing yourself into another, can lead to and create the greatest ideas and moments of our lives.’  – Helen Martin

Anyway- I’m seeing this period as a little bit of hibernation over these last few winter months. To nest, be slow, be gentle and soak everything up before our tiny addition arrives. Be it the grey misty mornings, washing of little clothes, cleaning of the fridge (just because we’ve realised it’s been a while), catching up on things I want to watch and things I already have- and preparing for this special new arrival and this precious time.

I hope that spring will bring a new chapter, some sunshine, and hopefully a lot more positivity and light. Thank you for all of your absolute loveliness, messages and support over the last few months- I am so grateful and so happy and excited to be able to share this chapter with you all too. This will be my last ‘proper’ blog post until the spring- but I’ll be pottering around over on Instagram– and if you happen to be a newsletter subscriber (or even if you aren’t), you can catch up with a few from the archives here too. I know nobody needed or asked for a dramatic ‘I’m taking a break announcement’- but I know selfishly this is definitely more for me to hold myself a little bit accountable for, and something I need to do (like a responsible adult)!

Take care of each other, and I’ll see you very, very soon.

Liv x

 

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