Honoring the Instinct to Rest

It’s been a few days since I’ve written because I felt the overwhelming need to rest. I don’t know if it was the holiday weekend or the winding down of the summer, but my body felt tired and I could sense that burnout was on the horizon.

A couple of years ago, I would have kept going, ignoring my body and I probably would have eventually gotten sick – my body’s way of forcing me to slow down.

Researchers have proven what the body intuitively knows: According to studies cited in this article by Marie Claire, chronic work stress can be as harmful to you as smoking and not exercising.

So after listening to my intuition and taking last week off, this week I feel energized, creative and rested. It may seem like a simple concept to just listen to your body but so many of us ignore what’s right in front of us.

We often get caught up in the dramatic stories of intuition in action, such as my previous post on Jaycee Dugard. But intuition is about recognizing the little things that we need minute-by-minute and day-by-day. It’s not something that we can plan weeks in advance; it’s about acknowledging your needs in the moment and responding to them.

Intuitive Action Item: You’ve probably planned out much of your work vacation time but if you haven’t scheduled all of it, leave some days free for “intuitive health” days. You can’t predict when your body will intuitively need a rest.

How Intuition Saved Jaycee Dugard

Intuition played a role in another major news story. Last week Jaycee Dugard, who had been abducted 18 years ago when she was 11, was found and her captor, Philip Garrido, was arrested.

Just as intriguing as the story itself was one of the factors that led to Dugard’s discovery: the intuition of a police officer and a campus safety officer with the University of California, Berkeley.

Both women, upon meeting Garrido, felt that something was off. In fact, that feeling led police officer Allison Jacobs to call Garrido’s parole officer, which eventually led to the discovery of Dugard and Garrido’s arrest.

This story is a good example of how to use intuition. The two officers trusted their gut instincts and then did some research to see if they were right. It’s also interesting that it’s becoming more socially acceptable for people to talk about the role intuition plays in their lives. Hopefully it will inspire someone to speak up like those officers did when intuition throws up a red flag.