Make Money While Laying Down... and Why That Works

If you want to make a certain level of income in your business and your natural way of working has been to push yourself too hard, your body is your biggest ally when it comes to shifting into working differently while still creating the income you desire.

If you’ve noticed your body mostly wants to lie down and that feels a little freaky, I have good news for you.

Your mind is probably interpreting what your body wants incorrectly.

Here’s what happens:

When your body says, “Yo, man, I’m freaking exhausted and I need to lie down,” your mind interprets that to mean your body wants to lie down for the rest of time, and you’ll never be able to get things done.

This is because you feel so tired from overworking that your entire mind-body system is giving you the emergency REST NOW signal.

It’s trying to protect you from this working style and make you think about rest as much as possible. The more it sends that signal, the more likely you are to actually, finally rest.

The more we push ourselves and pressure ourselves to keep going in the name of getting things done, the more our bodies will try to let us know that this isn’t working. We’ll start getting sick, we’ll end up in pain, we’ll drop a side table on our foot while moving it and break our foot (oh wait, maybe that’s just me…

The funny part is, when you do actually lie down, you might find that you really just needed an extra hour or two of rest for today.

Our bodies are just living in the moment, telling us we’re tired RIGHT NOW. They’re not projecting into the future, telling us we need to rest for the rest of our lives.

Our minds, though, are super good at projecting into the future.

We start to get scared that this level of tired means we can’t have what we want. We can’t help our bodies heal from chronic issues, we can’t run a business, we can’t parent - it’s not going to work.

The problem is that when you’re tired and overworked, your mind is far more likely to project into the future and tell you scary tales. Everything in the world seems wrong when your brain needs literal rest in order to function optimally.

This is why the key to being able to have a business and also take care of your body and spirit is shifting into a more flexible, moment-to-moment, body-led way of being.

If your mind is going haywire, you feel crappy, and you’re tired, this is the time to rest. (Even if your mind argues.)

Rest without letting your mind tell you how much rest you need.

Our minds LOVE to tell us scary stuff. They think they’re helping us. 

Just go lie down, close your eyes, and listen to some music, the sound of nature outside your window, or a guided meditation. Whatever works for you is the best option.

If you have to coach in an hour or pick up your kids from school, set a timer so you don’t feel stressed.

Don’t think about how much rest you might need, you should be getting, you will need tomorrow - just rest right now.

The cool part is that the more you do this, the more you’ll find that you’re in sync with your creative mind and your business. When you rest when your body tells you to rest - even if your mind thinks you should be writing emails or accomplishing something important - you will align with your mind-body system.

When you’re aligned with your mind-body system, you will be given the gift of flow.

The rest that you take will produce the energy and the inner wisdom guidance that you need when you’re sitting at your desk, creating and doing.

Your business will flow with this rhythm. You’ll find yourself getting everything done AND feeling a hell of a lot better in every way. Taking all stories about rest out of the equation will allow you to simply get rest as needed.

This means putting a few things in place so that you can listen to your body. You might need to align your calendar so that there are rest spots each day in case you need them. You might need to figure out childcare or trade with your spouse or a friend to make sure you can actually get some rest.

And, you can also plan larger chunks of time off where you can rest more. If the sound of this feels delicious in your bones, do it. At the same time, know that this is delicious because you haven’t been resting in flow yet.

Once you start resting in flow, you’ll find that short rests do wonders. You won’t need to lie in bed forever. You’ll start to feel more energized, more creative, more alive. Your business will flourish.

The body is an animal - it’s like my Golden Retrievers, who can run wildly around the backyard and steal socks (accomplishing very much in the dog sense) and then suddenly be completely comatose on the floor. They just rest when they need to rest.

And, working with you to create a realistic rest plan and the ability to truly tune into your body, trust its guidance, and access your inner wisdom so that you can truly have the business and income you want (while caring for your body and its needs) is the core component of my year-long somatic, mind-body program.

You can learn more about this program and others here.