- The forgotten kind of rest that helps us feel alive again.

If I gave you one extra hour today, what would you do with it?

Not an hour to answer emails.

Not an hour to tidy the house.

Not an hour to catch up on work.

An hour that belonged only to you.

What would you choose?

Whenever I ask a question like this, most people answer almost immediately:

"I would sleep."

And if you're physically exhausted, that may indeed be exactly what you need.

But over the years, I've noticed something interesting.

Many people tell me they are tired. Yet sleep is not always what they are missing. Sometimes they are missing something much deeper.

Photo by Ananya Dutta Photography


There is more than one way to rest

We often think of rest as sleeping, but rest comes in many forms.

Physical rest: sleep, lying down, gentle stretching.

Mental rest: emptying your thoughts onto paper, mindfulness, meditation.

Emotional rest: allowing yourself to feel, setting boundaries, talking to someone who truly understands.

Social rest: spending time with people who nourish you instead of drain you.

Sensory rest: putting your phone away, listening to birds instead of notifications.

Spiritual rest: reconnecting with what gives your life meaning.

And then there is one we rarely talk about.

Creative rest.

Not consuming creativity. Creating it.

Knitting. Drawing. Baking. Gardening. Improvising. Writing. Dancing.

Not because you're good at it.

Not because it will become something.

Simply because it feels good to make.

Now go back and read the forms of rest again, but this time notice which type of rest your body responds to. Which one makes something inside you quietly whisper:

"Yes... that."

Our bodies often know long before our minds do.


Why creativity gives us energy

I once saw my friend’s beautiful drawings and knitted pieces she makes in her free time and told her “Wow! These are so beautiful!”

All credits to artist Tally-zhiv

She laughed and said,

"These are the projects I do to keep myself sane."

I understood exactly what she meant. Because creativity is not another task; it is one of the ways the nervous system recovers.

In psychology and neuroscience, creativity is often described as the ability to combine existing ideas in new ways.

But what fascinates me even more is how the brain becomes creative.

Recent research suggests that the brain networks involved in creativity overlap substantially with those involved in exploration.

In other words:

Before we create something new...

we first have to allow ourselves to explore.

Without knowing exactly where we'll end up.


The part we have forgotten

And this is where many adults get stuck.

We have become so accustomed to doing things for a result that we forget how to do something simply because it is enjoyable.

To explore.

To play.

To make something that no one will ever see.

I remember taking an art class years ago.The assignment was to draw an object we had brought from home. I worked carefully. Patiently.

When I finished, I proudly asked the teacher,

"So... what's next?"

She smiled.

"Now take the scissors and cut it into pieces."

Photo by Heather Green on Unsplash

I thought she was joking. Destroy it? After all that work?

Reluctantly, I did. At first I was so sad to cut through. Then slowly something unexpected unfolded.

Halfway through cutting the paper, I stopped caring.

I felt lighter.

Almost free.

As if I had been attached to the drawing itself, and by letting it go I was also letting go of something inside me.

Years later, something similar happened in a dance workshop. We spent the entire class learning a choreography. At the end we finally danced it together.

When the music stopped, someone asked,

"So... when are we performing this?"

The teacher laughed.

"Perform it?"

"This was just for today."

"I wanted to make it with you."

"You enjoyed it, and now we let it go."

Her confidence amazed me. She wasn't attached to what we had made. She trusted there would always be another dance. Another idea, another moment of joy.

The purpose had never been the performance.

The purpose had been the experience.

Photo by Rochel in Maastricht Struinen in de Tuinen 2021, with my dancer friend and dance teacher Chantal Breavoine.


Creativity is a muscle

This completely changed the way I understand creativity.

Creativity is not a talent.

It is a practice.

A willingness to explore.

To try. To become curious. To make something. And then let it go.

Because it has already served its purpose.

Perhaps this is also why creativity feels so restorative. For a little while, we stop trying to be productive.

Photo by Thanh Tam on Unsplash

We stop trying to be perfect.

We stop trying to achieve.

Instead, we become explorers again.


This is why we dance the way we do

This is the principle behind my Dance, Movement & Breathing sessions.

We do not begin by making a dance.

We begin by exploring movement.

I offer an idea.
We become curious about it.
We study it through the body.
We play.

From that exploration, movement naturally unfolds.

To some, it may look like dance.
To others, it may look like complete nonsense.

We don't mind.

Because we are not moving to create something beautiful.

We are moving for the experience of creating.

The goal is never to produce the perfect movement.

The goal is to remember what it feels like to move without constantly evaluating yourself.

To explore instead of perform.

To create instead of perfect.

And perhaps that is why people often leave class saying,

"I feel lighter."

Not because we solved all their problems.

But because, for one hour, they gave themselves permission to move freely, without needing the movement to become anything at all.

And in doing so, they remembered something many of us lose as adults:

How to have fun again.

Photo by Ananya Dutta Photography


A small invitation

If someone gave you one extra hour today...

How would you truly spend it?

Not the version of you that is trying to keep everyone else happy.

The real you. The one who has perhaps been waiting for permission.

I'd genuinely love to know.

Simply hit reply to this email and tell me.

Sometimes, that answer reveals exactly the kind of rest we've been needing all along.

— Dr. Katerina Kandylaki



Bibliography

Green, A. E., Beaty, R. E., Kenett, Y. N., & Kaufman, J. C. (2024). The process definition of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 36(3), 544-572. 

Liu, Y., Wang, M., & Rao, H. (2025). Common neural activations of creativity and exploration: A meta-analysis of task-based fMRI studies. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 174, 106158. 

Vartanian, O., Bristol, A. S., & Kaufman, J. C. (Eds.). (2013). Neuroscience of creativity. MIT Press.