In a time when we often find ourselves divided instead of united,

Be reminded, there is only one force that overcomes fear and hate,

LOVE makes US great!

When I was starting my career, Bon Jovi released a very popular song “I’ll Sleep when I’m Dead.” Sing the chorus with me,

Until I'm six feet under, baby, I don't need a bed
Gonna live while I'm alive, I'll sleep when I'm dead
'Til they roll me over, and lay my bones to rest
Gonna live while I'm alive, I'll sleep when I'm dead

While the song is about living fully, it was also the perfect rock anthem for someone prone to overwork. For me it was the work hard, play hard era. I got by on 5-6 hours of sleep and vacations that were about cramming in as much as possible.

Fast forward a couple decades and now I joke that I almost got what I wished for. Giving up sleep and rest led to high blood pressure, debilitating back pain, and even cancer. It took pretty loud wake up calls to bring me back to a healthy relationship with rest.

Rest is essential to physical, mental, and spiritual health. Without rest we cannot be our best. I admit, my go go go brain has to frame rest as a necessity to enable work before I can let go and embrace the healing power of rest. 

I started a yoga practice to help put my abused body back together and eventually found that it also helped me learn to rest. Savasana, or corpse pose, in yoga was one of the hardest for me to learn. It may seem easy to just lay on your back and be still, but at the beginning I was a bundle of fidgets. Now it is one of my favorites – a few minutes of nowhere else to be, nothing else to do, simply rest.

As for vacation, now when I travel, I build in blocks of time with nothing to do. The goal for that time is to do something restful – lounge, nap, read, sleep until the sunlight warms my eyelids.

I usually end with a request for readers to share. Not this week. Just rest. Aloha. 

Love requires participation. Love requires sharing. Love requires action. Love requires commitment. 

With gratitude,

Joyce Aiko

(yes, love really is my middle name)