No. 8 - OOO R&R BRB

OOO R&R BRB

April 2, 2025 • Issue No. 8

I know you can’t tell on your end but I’m typing this newsletter with hands that are slightly more tanned! (Summer complexion loading…) Today is my first day back in the saddle after spending a week with family sailing the high seas from Galveston, Texas to Cozumel, Mexico. There were nine of us on the trip (me, my dad, my uncle, my aunt, my boy cousin, my girl cousin, and my girl cousin’s son and daughter — plus her daughter’s boyfriend) and two in our group were on their first cruise. While it wasn’t my first cruise, it was my first stress-free vacation since Juneteenth 2024.

And that’s got me wondering: when was yours?

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve had (tons! of) fun between Juneteenth and now — I’ve hosted friends and family for visits, seen some amazing concerts, had a birthday celebration I’ll never forget, and celebrated a few milestones — all of which keeps me feeling energized. But being at sea meant I couldn’t email, text, scroll, or FaceTime (unless I bought the WiFi package) and that was that. I set away messages on all of my email accounts and logged off forreal.

Sparkle Gang, I didn’t have any major epiphanies while I was gone. I didn’t untangle a work problem I’d been facing. I didn’t use the time to catch up on work-related reading. I didn’t meet anyone on the ship who might become a client or collaborator. I didn’t take tropical headshots to use for new content. By all work-related metrics, this trip was a waste of time.

When every day of our lives is about maximizing productivity, it’s counterintuitive to waste time. We aim to multi-task, to find productivity hacks and to “kill two birds with one stone”. Using time efficiently is a muscle we build with practice; relaxation is a muscle, too. In flexing mine last week, I realized how weak my relaxation muscle has become.

It was a privilege to be able to go away and come back, to forgo a week of self-employment income, to bask in the sun in the middle of the ocean, to drink virgin banana daiquiris with sand underfoot. But rest is not a privilege. Rest is your right.

When we’re not careful about securing rest, we run the well-documented risks of burnout and exhaustion, but fear is an unreliable motivator. Instead, consider all you gain from exercising your right to rest. A clearer mind? A wider smile? More peaceful sleep? Or perhaps just a reminder: your worth is not measured by your productivity. 💎You are valuable, you are worthy, you are sparkly — just the way you are. 💎

To learn more about rest and releasing rest-related shame, I highly recommend the book “Rest is Resistance” by Tricia Hershey. Tricia is also a frequent guest on podcasts and you can watch interviews by searching her name on YouTube.

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