Permission to rest

The importance of rest in high performance worlds is well known and accepted, and yet knowing doesn’t always equal doing. 

For people in high level pursuits like professional dancers, true rest can feel difficult, and the reasons why are more nuanced than they first appear.

Growing research on REDs in dancers sheds important light on what is at stake when those reasons go unexamined.

Defining rest 

Firstly, it is important to get really clear on what rest is, and how it is distinct from recovery.

In dance (and sport), recovery is an active and deliberate part of the work; cool downs, ice baths, physiotherapy. Rest is something different, a genuine reprieve from the physical and mental patterns of the day.

Rest is also personal, what is genuinely restorative varies from person to person. For some high performers, whose identity and nervous system are built around doing and achieving, rest can feel uncomfortable, unfamiliar, even unsettling. 

There is a real tension at the heart of high-level performance as it involves pushing to the edge of what is possible. This inevitably can blur the signal that we need rest, and as imperfect humans we aren’t going to get it right every time. 

When we hit our absolute limits, the signal to rest is normally clear. Our resources are spent, maybe an injury stops us in our tracks, and rest is the only option. 

There are also more subtle processes that can make permission to rest challenging, that are rooted in positive motivators: 

• When opportunity arrives, rest can feel counterintuitive, and maybe even risky to career outcomes.

• When ambitions feel unmet,  the answer feels like more work to fill the gap.

• When the activity is joyful and meaningful,  stopping it can feel like a loss.

The common thread is that across very different experiences, the answer often feels like more work. This isn’t a weakness; it is what a deeply ingrained culture of striving produces. 

In ballet, there are no short cuts, it is a career of constant work on oneself, but it is important to recognise that amid healthy striving, rest can subtly become devalued. Issues like REDs  can develop quietly in people who love what they do.

Designating value

The value of rest is also compromised by factors beyond individuals. 

Dance culture has historically rewarded endurance, sacrifice, and pushing through. The curtain up mentality and structural demands of professional dance, including rehearsal schedules, production timelines, and coaching methods, can make it challenging to factor in adequate rest, leaving it to the individual to carve out time. 

Where perfectionism goes unchecked, rest can even be perceived as time lost, weakness, or lack of commitment.

Within this context of individual drive and structural pressure, REDs offers an important framework for understanding what is at stake when rest is compromised and energy availability is chronically low. 

The costs are high, serving as a reminder of how much our physical and mental health are intertwined. 

When energy is low, our physical body starts to suffer, along with thinking power, mood, and motivation. Without quality rest, we can’t perform sustainably, nor embrace other parts of life in our spare time.

Intention to rest 

A practical aspect that often goes unacknowledged is that the transition into rest is its own intentional act. 

Moving from high activation rehearsal or performance directly into resting doesn't always mean the nervous system has followed.

A conscious pause or ritual between states can make all the difference. It can be as simple as acknowledging to yourself: I am finished working for the day and it’s time to shift gears. This step is more important than ever in a world where the instinct to reach for a phone fills every quiet moment. 

What used to be natural moments of transition are being replaced with more stimulation. 

Acknowledging the transition from work to rest gives the body and mind a chance to move into a quality resting state, valuing its benefits, trusting the process, knowing you can continue the work tomorrow.

A performance skill

Rest can appear deceptively still from the outside, and yet the internal shifts it produces are profound.

Rest is where physical and psychological adaptation happens, where motivation regenerates, experiences integrate, and creativity stirs. 

Like in a beautiful piece of music, if there were no moments of rest, the emotional arc of a melody would lose its power and resonance. 

Rest is a key checkpoint in the rhythmical cycle of performance. In this frame rest becomes a performance skill. 

Treating rest as a performance skill means approaching it with the same intentionality and value as rehearsal, not guilt or reluctance, but a genuine investment.

Knowing what genuinely restores you, and noticing when signals to rest are being ignored, is where quality rest begins.

What would it mean to treat your time resting as intentionally as your performance?