Hey there {{ first_name }} 💜

Quick thing before we start: I’m running a 21-day science-backed challenge to help you step into the new year as your most energised and well-rested self. If you want to create your ideal Ecosystem of Rest this November, click here for more info, and I’ll see you inside! 💃🏻

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Rest is a funny thing. It gives us the impression that it should be easy, simple, natural as breathing. Just rest. Just chill out and do nothing for a while, how hard can that be…

If you’re reading this Letter, you’re probably into personal growth. You might also be an ambitious overachiever. And for me, the voice of achievement has often whispered –

“You could just tick off one more thing from your to-do list. Wouldn’t that feel good? You haven’t done everything you planned for today yet. You can rest after you’ve achieved enough.”

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This was survivable while I was ‘just’ a student. I had my studies, my lecture timetable, and would skimp on sleep during exam season or dissertation deadlines. But overall, life had seasons of intensity and seasons of relative chill where the to-do list was much lighter.

But now as a content creator, business owner, CEO across our venture portfolio, and mum of one adorable baby girl, my life is busy pretty much all the time. As soon as one area of life or business chills out, another area starts to have proverbial fires that need attention. As soon as there’s a gap in the fires, any spare time becomes family time.

And I realised the first thing I sacrificed was time to rest.

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Sleep is one of those keystones that form the foundation for the rest of our lives.

In my third trimester of pregnancy, I had terrible insomnia. It was the worst sleep of my life. Probably due to a double whammy combination of the weight of my enormous belly making every single position slightly uncomfortable plus all the crazy pregnancy hormones making it hard to actually sleep – I was averaging 4 hours of sleep per night. Some nights were 3. I hated lying awake in bed at night, staring at the ceiling. I hated finally rolling out of bed the next morning, after barely sleeping. And I hated how the rest of my day would feel… foggy, sluggish, low energy, and lacking clarity or joy.

In intense seasons in the businesses, I also often struggle to rest deeply. I lie awake in bed at night, thoughts racing. I wake up in the middle of the night from intense dreams about problems I’m solving. I stay up late into the night working – my husband calls this my ‘gremlin mode’.

But the marginal gains squeezed out by a few extra hours of work late at night don’t come close to making up for the overall cost of poor sleep across my life.

I often need to remind myself of a truth that I’ve learned the hard way so many times:

“Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is rest.”

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Recently we’ve been tightening up our operating cadence as the biz grows, so I’ve been binge reading Gino Wickman’s classic business books. In his book Shine, one idea that stood out to me was this: shifting from short-term thinking, to thinking in 10-year time frames.

It made me realise that I often approach things differently when I think about the next ten years rather than just getting through today’s to-do list. And I want my actions today to serve my future self.

So over the last few weeks I’ve been asking myself this question every day:

If I were making this decision on a 10-year time horizon, what would I choose?

And usually I’ve found that in terms of rest, the answer is immediately obvious – make the damn time to rest. Rest is essential in both the medium and long term. Without rest, our health, wellbeing, and our ability to create and build things, are gradually eroded away.

So here’s an invitation to ask yourself the same question this week.

And if you’ve ever struggled with feeling tired all the time, or allowing yourself to finally rest, or creating your own ideal ecosystem of rest… I’m running a 21-Day Deep Rest Challenge in November to help you create sustainable systems to be your most energised, well-rested self. There’ll be weekly guided sessions, evidence-backed shifts and routines, meditations guided by me, daily accountability, and live Q&As with me, all in a community with other like-minded women. If you’re interested in joining, click here for more info. I’ll see you inside! 🙌

Lots of Love,

Izzy 🥰

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💫 This week’s journalling prompts

1. If I made today’s decisions with a ten-year time horizon, how would I change my approach?
2. What am I afraid might happen if I stop to rest? What do I know to be true?
3. What helps you feel most rested? Not just free from work, but genuinely restored.