Today’s task: Don’t set an alarm
Welcome to Day 1 of the Radical Rest Challenge!
You’re welcome to jot down your tasks in a notebook – I myself just bought the Wellness Journal from Moleskine (no, this isn’t affiliate marketing, I just think you might be interested in it) for an additional source of accountability.
You may recall that I offered a workshop earlier this year on Bullet Journaling…this is similar but more of the structure is provided here.
Anyways, my ‘log’ so to speak will be captured via these blog posts, and I’ve decided to keep track of other items related to my health, stress levels, physical activity, and diet via the journal as a way to start to spot patterns and figure out why my body is so damn fatigued.
I’m glad you’ll be joining me on this journey, and I hope that you come away with something new, a different perspective about your health, and perhaps a few tools that you can return to anytime you need them.
Day one’s task is pretty simple. Don’t set an alarm.
It’s rare that I give myself permission not to set an alarm. I’ve read so many things about sleep habits that say you should get up at the same time every day of the week, because otherwise you are setting your body up for failure by having it so radically different from week days to weekends.
After living four months in an apartment with three roommates (two of whom liked to stay up rather late) next to a door to the complex that was constantly being opened by college students, I knew that a priority of my next living arrangement needed to be rest. I thought that not having any roommates would be the key…
Turns out that living in downtown Fargo was probably the worst idea I could have had as it relates to my sleep. I have lots of homeless folks that like to stay up to the wee hours of the morning yelling at each other outside, and cars that love to peel away from stop lights and stop signs so that they can sound tough.
Unfortunately, this means that even with earplugs, I’m still at square one of not resting well. And any loud noise makes my heart pound out of my chest. I’m not 100% sure I’ve overcome some of the trauma that I experienced living in the Twin Cities around the time that George Floyd was murdered and my neighborhood felt like the center of a war zone.
Anyways, I didn’t set my alarm and ended up sleeping until 10 a.m. today. It was glorious. And it set up the rest of the day to be very calm, not rushed, and I accomplished a few things, but I wasn’t hard on myself for not being super productive. This is an area that I want to improve immensely and I know will take time.
Good luck with whatever you’ve chosen today! And if you choose to join me, I hope that not setting an alarm similarly allows you the rest you need without feeling guilty for it.
