This past week, while on a summer break from teaching, my life changed.

It sounds dramatic, but it's true.

There was no life-altering event or big shocking reveal. I simply slept. And when I say I slept, I mean I entered the Olympics of sleeping.

I would wake up at my usual time, take Tilly outside, grab a cup of coffee, settle in for my morning journaling... and then I'd go back to bed. I also napped in the afternoon.

I've never felt so good in my life.

My skin is clearer. I swear I have fewer wrinkles. My body recovers faster after I move. The bloat is gone, and my brain feels so much less foggy. I feel lighter, happier, and more like myself than I have in months.

The funny thing is, I've always been a good sleeper, even as perimenopause began making itself at home in my body. But this past year everything fell apart. Training an 11-week-old puppy is a lot like having a newborn. Tilly needed me around the clock, and without even realizing it, I dug myself into a pretty major sleep deficit. Along the way, my meditation practice became more hit or miss than part of my daily routine. 

Then all the little things that life naturally throws your way started feeling much bigger than they really were. I found myself telling Jeffrey every single day how exhausted I was. I felt bloated, sluggish, and just... off. I kept chalking it up to hormones or getting older, but I don't think either one deserved all the blame.

So instead of planning another vacation packed from sunrise to bedtime, we stayed home and I slept. In fact, after I finish writing this newsletter, I'm going back to bed.

A younger version of me probably would have called that lazy. Today, I call it one of the smartest things I've done for myself all year.

The more I've been reading this week, the more I've realized how important sleep becomes during this stage of life. 

As estrogen and progesterone change, sleep isn't just about feeling rested anymore. It's when your body repairs muscle, regulates stress hormones, supports your brain, balances hunger, and helps keep inflammation in check. It also explains why everything suddenly feels harder when we're running on empty. Recovery takes longer. Brain fog rolls in. The little things seem bigger than they are. We crave sugar, our patience gets thinner, and sometimes we don't even recognize ourselves.

I know many of you are juggling careers, families, aging parents, grandchildren, pets, partners, and about a thousand other responsibilities. Getting more sleep isn't always realistic. But maybe the answer isn't finding more hours. Maybe it's giving ourselves permission to truly rest when we need it.

I'm making a few changes after this week. My meditation practice is coming back. I'm going to protect my sleep the same way I protect my yoga practice. And here's one quirky thing I have already decided I'm doing: once a month I'm declaring a Breakfast in Bed Day.

No birthday. No holiday. No special occasion.

I'll stay in bed a little longer, have breakfast there, read, nap if I feel like it, and give myself the permission to move a little slower. It sounds wonderfully ridiculous, which is probably why I love the idea so much.

We spend so much of our lives believing we have to earn rest. Finish one more thing. Cross one more task off the list. Push through one more day. What if rest wasn't something we had to earn? What if it was simply part of taking care of the incredible body that's carried us this far?

Tomorrow we begin our August playlist and challenge, and I can't think of a better way to step into a new month.

One of the greatest gifts a consistent yoga practice isn't a Handstand or a deeper backbend. It's that you begin to understand your body. You learn the difference between when it needs to be challenged and when it needs to recover. You stop fighting against it and start working with it.

That's exactly what happened to me this week.

A year ago I would have filled every day of this break with projects, adventures, and things that "needed" to get done. This year my body asked for sleep, so I listened.

It reminded me of something I think a lot of women forget during perimenopause and menopause: our bodies are constantly communicating with us. Sometimes they ask us to challenge them. Sometimes they ask us to slow down. The hard part isn't figuring out which one they need. The hard part is giving ourselves permission to listen.

If you've been feeling more tired than usual, struggling with brain fog, recovering more slowly from workouts, or wondering why the little things suddenly feel so much harder, consider this your permission slip to rest. Go to bed a little earlier. Take the nap. Say no to something that can wait. Declare your own Breakfast in Bed Day once a month if that sounds as wonderful to you as it does to me.

Your strongest years aren't built by pushing through exhaustion. They're built by learning how to care for the body that's carrying you through them.

And sometimes, the healthiest thing you can do is absolutely nothing at all.