When Rest Becomes the Work: What a Forced Pause Taught Me About What I Was Carrying | EP 580

Stress doesn't always announce itself. It settles in quietly alongside the good things and if you're capable and self-aware, you manage it so well you stop noticing it's there.

This episode is the reflection I had after an unexpected surgery stripped away every defense and distraction. Don't wait for your body to make the decision for you.

Full show notes, transcript, and chapters at sheilabotelho.com/580

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Transcript

A Question Worth Your Week

Sheila 0:25

You have great tools, you have solid practices, and you're still carrying more than you know. In this episode, I'm sharing what a forced season of complete rest revealed to me that a regular Tuesday never could, and what it might mean for what you're quietly holding right now. The most capable people in the room are often the ones managing the most beneath the surface. And today, I'm sharing the lens that came through my own unexpected stillness. Stay with me to the end because the question I leave you with might be the most useful thing you hear all week. Hi, welcome to the podcast. I'm Sheila Botelho and I believe true success is built from the inside out. This mini sode is designed to help you live into what lights you up this week. I want to share something personal today, not to overshare, but because I know that often what comes to me through lived experience can tend to be some of the most useful things that I can offer. So I recently came through a health event that I didn't see coming. I needed an emergency appendectomy surgery. And in the weeks that followed, I had no choice but to stop. Stop everything completely. No work, no output, no managing any moving parts, just rest. And it's been a long time since I've been forced into that. And now I want to talk about stress for a moment because I think this matters for every founder listening. There is this stress that we feel, the kind that shows up as tension in your shoulders. Perhaps it's a short fuse or trouble sleeping. We know that, right? We've experienced that. And then there's a kind of stress that we're managing so competently that we've stopped registering it as stress at all. We have good practices, whether it's prayer or breath work or therapy or movement, time in nature, and we use them. They help. And sometimes they help so much that they keep us functional inside of circumstances that are actually asking for something deeper. I had great tools, I still do, and I was still carrying more than I knew. When I was forced into complete stillness with no defenses up and no agenda to get back to, everything surfaced. Everything. Old ways of operating that no longer fit who I am, that I knew it was kind of running in the background of my mind, but I hadn't made the space to really address situations and relationships I thought that I understood clearly that turned out to be something else entirely. Some revelations, but also some quiet, undeniable clarity that could only come through the absence of noise. And that is the gift that rest gave me. It wasn't just about recovery, it was actually revelation. And here's what I want you to take from this. Life can be really, really, really good a lot of the time. And I'm so grateful that's how it is for me most of the time. And then something comes out of nowhere: a health scare, a loss, a season that calls everything into question for you. And in those moments, we always have a choice in how we respond. I chose to utterly surrender to it, to the rest, to the disconnecting, and to letting what needed to come up come up. I'm not saying that you need a health event to do that work, by the way. What I am saying is there's probably something in you right now, beneath the very capable surface of your life, that's been waiting for a moment of genuine stillness to be seen from you. And you don't have to wait for your body to make that decision for you. So, where in your life right now could you create that space intentionally? Even a small one, even this week. That is the question I'm leaving with you today. I invite you to give yourself one unscheduled hour this week with no input, no content, no agenda. And notice what services for you in that space. Before I go, I want to take a moment to express how deeply grateful I am for the care I received through all of this, from the paramedics to the surgical team, and of course, the incredible team of nurses to everyone who supported my recovery at home. The expertise and kindness at every single step meant everything to me. And my circle of friends and family who showed up in the most nourishing, generous ways. I don't take any of that for granted for a single second. I will tell you, coming through something like this, I'm finding so much joy in the simplest things, watching the buds come back on my trees, hearing the cardinals sing. That bird song gets me every time. We are so blessed to be alive. So thank you for being here. I hope you carry something from this episode into your week, and I'll see you on the next episode.