I am fundamentally one of those people that hates the concept of naps. I’ve never seen the value to napping. Apparently, as a kid I didn’t take to napping either. My poor mother, bless her heart. There is much to do in life and life is short. You know, the whole YOLO thing. Although, I’m supremely annoyed by the YOLO concept as well. How did that word make it into the dictionary? But back to napping. I hate it.
When Arianna Huffington went on her self-righteous book promotion tour where she extolled the virtues of sleep I wanted to send her three hundred pounds of coffee and see how she would sleep then.  I thought to myself she could afford to nap. She probably has an assistant whose sole purpose is to wake her up from naps. If you don’t have to worry about making payroll, life is good and naps are delicious. Naps are not yummy in my worldview.

Now that I ranted about how much I hate naps, please permit me a moment or two to say that perhaps I’ve had the wrong relationship with napping. I would still rather spend every moment in a foreign city touring and meeting people than ever napping. I want to see the world in real life and not just in my dreams. However, in the past six months I have taken 3 naps. This is unheard of for me. Am I slowing down? Sure, I am getting older. Am I unmotivated these days? No, I’m still a workhorse. Perhaps even more so. What’s going on?

Well, I learned to nap. I have learned that occasionally I just want to tune out the world, decompress, and dream. Where did I learn to nap? Well, in California. The sun warms my brain and soothes my aches. I get a moment where I just feel that I can say things can wait 20 minutes. I then tell myself, I’m going to nap now. I lie down and fall instantly asleep. I do so usually with the television on with the hopes I’ll still soak in some world information. Considering the state of media these days, I nap with the TV on foolishly.

I have to share that I do feel powerful when I tell myself that I am going to sleep and then do so. Mind over matter. Or is it that my body is finally winning out over my overactive brain?  Of course, I still do not have the luxury to nap during the workday. Bills are still bills. But I do look at that space beneath my desk with new appreciation. I’m pretty sure that’s not what Ms. Huffington was advocating for. It is, what it is.