Hey there, it's Friday again, and it's been a short week for a lot of you, hasn't it?

Because there was another bank holiday on Monday, and hopefully you've got some well-deserved rest

despite the flipping heat wave. But for a lot of folk, rest doesn't feel restful at all.

It feels wrong, as if there's something else you should be doing, as if you have to

justify the fact that you've stopped. As if rest is only acceptable if you're exhausted enough,

ill enough, or if you've somehow earned it. And I think that's really common, common enough

that people often don't even question it.

They just assume that's adulthood, that's normal.

You sit down for five minutes and immediately remember six things that need doing.

And before you know it, that little moment of downtime has gone.

Not because someone interrupted you.

Because your own brain did. And this shows up in all sorts of

ways. Some people can't even watch a film unless they're also folding laundry. Some can't take

annual leave without checking emails. And some people feel guilty just for having a lie in. Some people

only stop when their body forces them to.

They burn out, get ill, and only allow themselves permission to rest then, as if rest isn't a normal

human need, but some sort of emergency procedure. Now, before I go any further, there is a

difference between healthy rest and plain old avoidance.

Sometimes we do procrastinate.

Sometimes we do put things off and we call it self-care.

Three hours of doom scrolling isn't always rest, though.

Sometimes it's numbing.

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