My Rest-olution v.2022

I'm the kind of guy who always seems to be on the go. I am often told I do too much for too may people and spread myself far too thin. I work in an industry where I deal with problems. Problems of all sorts. I am a maintenance man in a very large, outdated, problem riddled apartment building. There isn't much that hasn't caused some sort of problem for one or multiple of the residence, and to be honest it is proven to me daily that common sense is not so common. None the less I am the one they call to fix their problems. I find myself on my feet all day long racking up the miles. According to my pedometer app an easy day has me breaking the 10 000 step marker before 2 pm. On a bad day its double by that time.

I also have what people refer to as a "side hustle", as if my full time position wasn't hustle enough. I am a general contractor/ handyman. So I build, re-build, fix, hustle. Move from jobsite to jobsite fixing problems people have and doing my best to make people happy. This isn't easy by any means yet people believe because i do it for a living it must come to me with some sort of ease. This is not always the case.

On top of this I also make the time to maintain healthy relationships with my beautiful daughter, wonderful partner and her two amazing children. Our party of 5 is always doing something. Weather it be dance classes, art, sports, movies, cooking, baking, yoga, yard work, fishing or some other sort of stimulating entertainment. The time is never enough yet somehow I get up each morning and do it all over again. Always on the go, never stopping. Always on the move, never sitting still. If its not work it's family. If it not someone, it is something. There is always a problem that needs to be fixed. If I'm not maintaining part of a suite, I'm maintaining the mental wellbeing of a resident.

So the important questions throughout all of this are how do I maintain myself? How do fix the problems I have? How do I find the time for me? How do i continue accomplishing everyday? How do I keep going without completely crashing and being broken down into a million tiny little pieces?

Well sadly enough year after year I can honestly say, I DON'T, or it doesn't always feel like I am. Yet somehow I'm still here. I'm not in a million little pieces. I am enjoying my life as busy as it may be. I get to enjoy the smiles of the children and my partner. I am happy, but how does this make any sense?

The answer is actually quite simple even though I don't put enough focus on it all of the time. My partner and I find the time or should I say make the time to switch from on-the-go to slow-mo. It may not be as often as we would like it to be but we have our little piece of sanctuary. Once in a while we make the moment, usually later at night once the kids are in bed to fill the bath of piping hot water. We fill the room with the soft pink amber glow of the Himalayan salt lamp, and fill our ears with the soft soothing sounds of a yoga playlist and we Rest....

This has been the key to keep me pushing through the last few years. Even though we don't do it nearly as often as we should we both realize it is these moment that keep us functioning, keep us together, keep us grounded and keep us happy.

Rest is what it all boils down to. Our rest is vital to our mental and physical wellbeing. It is rest that provides us with the ability to keep going. It doesn't take much it just needs to be taken. I find myself breaking from a task for five minutes to sit briefly, focus on my breath as it smoothly and effortlessly flows in through my nostrils and out slowly through my mouth. it really is that simple. Taking the time to focus on the movements we make that we don't ever really think about. Those are the restful moments we should be thriving on. It's the moments where we consciously take our lives from always on the go and bring it into slow-mo.

I picture my moment playing out like the instant replays from my favorite sporting event. The broadcasters always seem to have every imaginable angle of video and they break it down to the most minute moments where the athlete made the movement to place themselves in the perfect situation to complete the play of an outstanding result. It just happens that in my case the sporting event is my everyday life and the movements I need to make to accomplish the extraordinary or outstanding result is as little as possible. I first need to freeze the frame and then flip through each frame one by one stopping to analyze and enjoy every detail. That is rest.

From the moment we run the bath, place the lamp, turn on the music, peacefully submerge our bodies and lay holding each other. To the moment we step out of the lavender scented water and bring ourselves back to the world around us, it is the rest that we needed and continue to need.

So you ask what is my resolution to this beautiful present we call Twenty Twenty Two? My answer, I really don't have much of one but what I do offer to you instead is my Rest-olution. I will be taking more of the moments I so firmly believe are needed to adjust from always on the go and break them down to the best moments in my life with my rest filled slow-mo.