I hope this letter finds you effortlessly well-rested; quality rest is truly life-changing.

Are you tired?

Really FEEL your way into that question.

Most of us are chronically tired. We’re tired because we don’t learn how to rest properly.

Rest – good rest – is a creativity amplifier. It’s hard to produce good quality work and to really hear the call of your Muse when you’re tired.

There are four kinds of rest that we need to feel good and better aligned with our natural creative essence.

The “instructions” for the four kinds of rest are found in the Gates of the Will Center.

Recovery is the first kind of rest and provides the foundation for feeling rested. We recover when we sleep and generally rest our bodies and our minds. Sometimes recovery can be simply sitting and “doing nothing” or letting our minds wander in a dreamy kind of way. We literally need time to sit and think without any real aim or “figuring out.”

If we don’t get enough recovery time, it can actually make the other kinds of rest feel exhausting.

The Gate 40, The Gate of Restoration, teaches us that we must recover on a regular basis if we’re going to be able to enter into healthy agreements and relationships. The failure to recover can sometimes cause us to buy into the idea that someone else will come along and “save us” from all the burdens and work we’re doing.

Recovery is essential for healthy relationships, agreements, and community.

Restoration is the second kind of rest. Restoration happens when we “restore” our value and our integrity. I’m not talking about moral integrity but structural integrity. We are unique, once-in-a-cosmic-lifetime-events. Our individual lives have a unique purpose and are inherently precious. Sometimes we forget.

Restoration is anything you do that helps you remember who you truly are and reconnects you to your right place in the world. Restoration can be therapy, journaling, getting a massage, taking a personal growth and development course, or a close conversation with your best friend that helps you get yourself back on track.

Restoration is associated with the Gate 26, the Gate of Integrity. If we internalize the message that it’s not okay to be who we are and “how” we are, it can knock us out of integrity. For the Gate 26 to function at it’s highest potential and to support us in setting good boundaries and making self-care a priority, we have to make sure that we restore any elements of who we are that may be out of integrity.

There are five kinds of integrity in Quantum Human Design:

1. Physical Integrity is experienced when our bodies are healthy and vital.

2. Resource Integrity is when we sustainably use our material resources.

3. Identity Integrity is experienced when we feel that we can fully manifest the value of our authentic identity and don’t compromise who we are for money.

4. Moral Integrity is the courage to do the right thing and to make sure that your actions are honest and aligned with high principles and values.

5. Energetic Integrity is experienced when we consistently and deliberately rest and take care of ourselves so that we have the energy to engage with life sustainably.

Recreation is the third kind of rest. Recreation is the kind of rest that most think should be restful, but restoration can actually burn you out if you haven’t taken the time to engage in the first two kinds of rest.

We are deeply conditioned to think that we always have to be “doing” something. We equate recreating with rest because recreation usually involves some kind of “doing,” whether it’s going on an RV trip, camping, kayaking, hiking, going to an art museum, or playing a sport.

We need to play. It’s literally built into our nervous system. We learn and integrate from play, but if we’re forcing play and recreation when we need recovery or restoration, then our play has hidden agendas and can actually feel somewhat manic and be depleting.

Recreation and play are the exalted expressions of the Gate 21, the Gate of Self-Regulation. We learn when to “let go” and play and regulate ourselves enough to include play and recreation as essential to honoring our value.

The last kind of rest is Celebration. Obviously, celebration notes significant milestones such as weddings and births, but we often neglect to celebrate other accomplishments in our lives. Our regular lives are full of moments of completion, success, creation, and more. Still, because we’re so conditioned to push ourselves towards the next accomplishment and the next, we often gloss over what we’ve done and fail to note our little successes along the way.

Celebration includes noting and basking in the light of our accomplishments, giving us a pause to take stock of what is working and what we have done well. It supports us in creating more aligned growth and creative expansion, but for many of us, celebrating the small stuff can feel like “tooting our own horn” (and what exactly IS wrong with that anyway…?).

The Gate 51, the Gate of Initiation, represents the energy of celebration. This Gate reminds us that it’s who we “be” that is the fulfillment of our higher purpose and that our very existence is worthy of joy, bliss, and ritual that anchors us in the memory of who we truly are.In order to better rest, we also need to acknowledge our lives and what we’ve accomplished – and to do so without putting the focus on more manic momentum, but in gentle appreciation for who we are, what we have, and what we have created along the way.

This week I invite you to explore how you are resting. Are you doing a good job? What do you need to add to increase your resilience and vitality? How can you better rest so that you can increase your creativity?

Have a good, restful week!!!

From my Heart to yours,

Karen

Want to learn more? Quantum Human Design™ Basics HERE.

Want to dive deeper into the Gates?
QHD Activation Card Deck – Companion Book