The Productivity Paradox

Resting... our most important exercise?

Photo by Hernan Sanchez on Unsplash

I'm writing this at 9:47 PM on a Tuesday, after a day that included four private client sessions, two business meetings, grocery shopping, dinner prep, and responding to approximately 27 text messages. My Apple Watch is congratulating me for "closing my rings," my to-do list still has eight unchecked items, and my brain will not turn off.

I feel like I’m not alone here.

This is the reality for most women I work with. High achievers who've mastered the art of doing but have completely forgotten the science of being. We've created lives where rest feels like failure, where doing nothing feels irresponsible (and guilty), and where our worth is measured by our productivity metrics.

But here's what I've learned from working with and listening to women over 35: the ones who look and feel their best have mastered the art of strategic rest.

The Rest Resistance

There's something almost rebellious about suggesting that rest is important to a demographic of women who've been conditioned to believe their value lies in constant motion. We're the generation that pioneered "having it all"—careers, families, social lives, fitness routines, volunteer commitments, and perfectly curated Instagram feeds.

But "having it all" often means resting never.

I watch clients schedule back-to-back meetings, skip lunch to fit in workouts, answer emails during family dinners, and then wonder why they feel anxious, exhausted, and somehow always behind. The idea of intentional rest, not just sleep, but actual conscious downtime feels foreign, even selfish.

This resistance runs deep. We've internalized the message that busy equals important, that rest equals laziness, and that if we're not constantly improving or achieving, we're somehow failing.

The Physiology of Never Stopping

Let's talk about what happens in your body when rest becomes a foreign concept. Your nervous system has two primary states: sympathetic (fight-or-flight) and parasympathetic (rest-and-digest). These systems are designed to balance each other; periods of activation followed by periods of recovery.