The Day I Realised Rest Was Productive
- Leanne Harrison
- Jun 19
- 4 min read
I was standing at the edge of a thermal pool in Tuscany.
The sun was shining, the water was warm, the hills stretched out in front of me, and for the first time in a very long time... I wasn't thinking about what I should be doing.
No emails.
No to-do list.
No content plan.
No mental checklist running through my head reminding me of all the things I hadn't done yet.
Just me, standing there, enjoying the moment.
And honestly?
It had taken me years to get to that point.
For most of my adult life, I believed that success meant doing more.
Working harder.
Getting up earlier.
Pushing through.
Saying yes.
Being productive.
Being useful.
Being busy.
Especially after becoming a mum.
Because if you're a mum, you'll know that the second you sit down, your brain starts producing a list of seventeen things you should probably be doing instead.
The washing.
The dishes.
The school forms.
The emails.
The meal plan.
The thing you forgot to buy at the supermarket.
The thing you've now remembered you forgot to buy at the supermarket.
Again.
Somewhere along the way, I'd convinced myself that rest was something you earned.
Something that came after everything else was finished.
The problem?
Everything is never finished.
There's always one more thing.
One more task.
One more email.
One more load of washing.
One more thing to feel guilty about.
So I kept pushing.
Even when I was exhausted.
Even when my body was asking me to slow down.
Even when I knew I needed a break.
I wore busyness like a badge of honour.
Until eventually I realised it wasn't making me more successful.
It was just making me tired.
Very tired.
Looking back, I often wonder if the ancient Roman women had it figured out long before we did.
Living here in Italy, surrounded by centuries of history, I sometimes imagine them rolling their eyes at us modern women trying to optimise every second of the day.
Perhaps they understood something we've forgotten.
That life isn't supposed to be lived at the same pace all the time.
That seasons change.
Nature changes.
And so do we.
The turning point for me came when I discovered cyclical living.
At first, it was through a book called Do Less by Kate Northrup.
The book focused on work and productivity, but it introduced me to a simple idea that completely changed my perspective:
Women aren't designed to have the same energy every day.
That might sound obvious now, but at the time it felt revolutionary.
I'd spent years expecting myself to perform at the same level every single day of the month.
If I could smash a workout on Monday, why couldn't I do the same three weeks later?
If I could work for hours without stopping one week, why did everything suddenly feel harder the next?
I thought I lacked discipline.
I thought I needed more motivation.
I thought there was something wrong with me.
There wasn't.
I was simply experiencing different phases of my cycle.
Once I started paying attention, I noticed patterns everywhere.
There were times in my cycle when I felt creative, energetic and capable of taking on the world.
And there were times when my body was clearly asking for more rest.
For years I'd ignored those signals.
Now I started listening.
That didn't mean spending five days a month lying on the sofa eating biscuits and calling it self-care.
Although, to be fair, sometimes that's exactly what was needed.
It meant learning to work with my energy instead of constantly fighting against it.
Maybe my workout became a walk.
Maybe my ambitious to-do list became three important tasks instead of twenty-seven.
Maybe I swapped productivity for recovery.
And here's what surprised me the most.
The world didn't end.
Nothing fell apart.
In fact, the opposite happened.
When I stopped forcing myself to push through exhaustion, I became more consistent.
I had more energy.
More creativity.
More patience.
More clarity.
I stopped quitting every time things felt hard because I finally understood that low-energy phases weren't a problem to solve.
They were part of the rhythm.
These days, when I find myself needing a slower day, I don't panic.
I don't immediately assume I'm failing.
I don't try to fix myself.
I remind myself that rest is doing something.
It's not the opposite of productivity.
It's part of productivity.
Because rest isn't empty.
It's where recovery happens.
It's where ideas form.
It's where creativity returns.
It's where your body catches up.
And sometimes it's exactly what you need before your next season of growth.
Standing in that thermal pool in Tuscany, I realised something that sounds so simple now.
Rest wasn't something I had to earn.
Rest was something I needed.
Not because I'd failed.
Not because I was lazy.
But because I was human.
And perhaps the most productive thing I could do that day was absolutely nothing at all.
Curious About Cyclical Living?
If you've ever felt guilty for slowing down, struggled to stay consistent, or wondered why your energy changes throughout the month, you're not alone.
The HerRhythm Cycle Sync Starter Kit will help you understand your cycle, recognise your energy patterns and start working with your body instead of constantly pushing against it.
✔ Learn the four phases of your cycle
✔ Understand your natural energy fluctuations
✔ Discover cycle-synced nutrition, movement and self-care
✔ Start planning by energy instead of motivation
Because sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is stop fighting your rhythm.
Download the HerRhythm Cycle Sync Starter Kit and start discovering your rhythm today.
Comments