Rest days, the day of rest, whatever you want to call them we all need them (we really really do). This applies for so many things in life but today I’m going to talk about rest days in relation to both work and exercise. These are two things that are a big part of my life and sometimes I sometimes need to take a step back from more that I do, so this post is for both me and you to realise what’s needed.

Let’s start with exercise.

Whether you’ve been exercising for years, days, lifting weights, running or dancing around the house, rest days are so so important for your body. When doing exercise you’re essentially tearing your muscles apart. This is why you feel sore the day or days after an intense workout or find yourself not feeling as strong as 4 days ago as you’ve been working out everyday.

If you’re constantly allowing your muscles to tear day in and out, no matter how much protein you eat, they’re not going to be able to reach their full potential in terms of size and strength. It also makes you so much more susceptible to injury which could be a long term recovery meaning you’re not able to exercise as well in the future.

By making sure to have a rest day this allows the muscles to repair themselves. You’ll find you get less muscle soreness in the long run, your muscles will start to grow and you’ll become so much stronger. I used to very much be in the mindset of needing to push myself everyday and since making sure I always have 2 rest days a week, my muscles have grown so much and I’m lifting weights twice as heavy as I was 12 weeks ago – so make sure to do it.

Now, work.. let’s talk about it.

As with exercise, rest days when it comes to your work is important. For me personally I run this blog, my Instagram and a small business all alongside a full time job, so as you can imagine my days are very full on. There’s nothing I love more than writing these posts and drawing illustrations for you all, as not only do I get satisfaction from doing it, you all seem to love and support me which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Even with things you love, you need to rest. Take time to chill and reflect on what you’ve done. Not only does this give your brain a bit of a time to stop thinking, something I still need to work on, it means your creative flow doesn’t hit a wall and you don’t start to despise what you loved.

I’m so guilty of never giving myself a day off and honestly, I think it’s one of the reasons I sometimes find it hard to sleep, I get agitated and get periods of feeling low. I’m human after all and I think we all need to realise that sometimes we just need a day off!

Take a day.

I’m going to try and organise my days a bit better to make sure that I always have at least one full day off every 2 weeks to do whatever the hell I want. As much as I love drawing, writing and creating content, I think it’s important for my mental health to just have me time. Watch films, eat snacks and not worry about whether people are reading my blog or whether not doing a workout is going to put me behind a schedule.

If you’d like to see more posts about how I organise my time be sure to let me know, I’d be happy to share this all with you!

Love, always – B
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