Man explains why rest shouldn't be a reward for work and he has a point: 'You are a living being'

The hustle culture has shifted our mindset drastically in today's fast-paced world. Rest and time-off work has started to feel like a luxury and something we have to earn by exhausting ourselves by working multiple jobs. In times like these, it is crucial that we get a reminder that resting and taking breaks is actually a necessity, rather than a luxury. A Twitter user named Eso explained why we all deserve to rest. 

He wrote in a viral tweet, "I don’t know who needs to hear this but rest is not a reward. You don’t have to earn rest. You need rest. You deserve rest. You are worthy of rest simply because you are a living being. And don’t ever feel guilty for taking time to rest." The tweet posted almost a year back now has over 300k likes and thousands of comments. There were many people who resonated with the idea of feeling guilty for resting.

A person commented on the tweet with their own experience by writing, "As a person who struggles with mental health issues, I am constantly having feelings of guilt when I don’t accomplish things DAILY. It causes me anxiety and the anxiety causes paralysis. It’s a vicious cycle." Another added, "the guilt feels horrible. We've been living under rise-and-grind culture so long that we've forgotten to accomplish things for ourselves like being happy. Meet your physical needs, then find what makes you happy. That's accomplishment enough."

"Man this is definitely a tough pill to swallow for me I kinda worked myself to the point of being burnt out and I have this flip-floppy feeling about resting. I know I need it, but I always feel like I'm just being lazy," yet another user shared.

According to Integris Health, "Rest is vital for better mental health, increased concentration and memory, a healthier immune system, reduced stress, improved mood, and even a better metabolism." Hence, not resting can actually decrease the amount of productivity you have during the day and allow you to have more energy to focus on other aspects of your life. A Twitter user commented, "You don’t rest cause you’ve performed well, you rest so that you can perform well."

The perspective towards the dynamic between working and resting is swiftly changing as the COVID-19 pandemic taught us that our physical and mental health is important. Celeste Headlee, author of "Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving" is also working toward the common stigma around resting. She writes in her book which was released in 2021, "Despite our constant search for new ways to 'hack' our bodies and minds for peak performance, human beings are working more instead of less, living harder not smarter, and becoming more lonely and anxious."

She posed a question to all who have been struggling with the guilt of resting, "We strive for the absolute best in every aspect of our lives, ignoring what we do well naturally. Why do we measure our time in terms of efficiency instead of meaning? Why can't we just take a break?" She adds, "If our worth is our time spent at work and it's mixed with our identity, then we're going to feel stressed any time we're not at work. So who benefits from this? Your employer." The importance of rest is increasingly becoming important as working environments are becoming more hectic and time-consuming. We need to learn to dissociate the feeling of guilt from the activity of resting and treat it as a necessity than a luxury.