I’m feeling lazy! I just sat and stared into space. I owned it. I was a mess. There you have it – my confession.
I shared these words with a friend, embarrassed of my state of mental health. She sat quietly for a moment, then said “It’s okay to just sit and BE in certain seasons of life”. Was it? I wasn’t convinced, but it did give me something to think about. What was it I really needed? Why couldn’t I move? After weeks of pondering that conversation in my daily slump on the porch, it began to make sense. What I really needed was a great big daily dose of Jesus and that’s exactly what I was doing. My friend was right after all. As the sun beat upon my cheeks, I was soaking in God’s healing rest for my body and mind. “Be still. Sit with me. Rest in my arms.” As my mind-shift changed, I could see that my soul was craving this time of rest – there was a peace as I let go.
For most of my life, I’d wake up and hit the ground running – never stopping until bedtime. The to-do list is too long! The needs are too many! The day is too short! Most days I’d accomplish a dozen tasks before most people had their morning coffee. Although that was the banner I hung around my neck with pride, there was always a deep, inner lacking of peace.
It wasn’t until the pandemic forced me into a state of pause, that I began to accept that it was okay to slow down………….because the rest of the world had slowed down as well. Rest was still a “worldly” concept, not something for my soul. It took almost a year of sitting and staring at the sun for me to realize, in this chosen pause, I was doing something amidst the nothing (or at least I was with Someone in the nothing). I was learning to surrender the day………and eventually my life…….to Jesus. What began as a remedy for my burnout, morphed into a daily habit. It was the only way for me to feel prepared to tackle my day in a healthy way. It is God’s gift of Sabbath rest.
Resting fuels the body, relaxes the mind, and brings calm to the soul. Resting is necessary for good health – just like sleep. We need both for body and soul. We need to be careful, as I think sometimes rest can turn to laziness, if we aren’t intentional about how we spend our work time and downtime. When I stop and ask God to show me how to rest and to help me find rest in him – He does.
Feeling mental fog and physically sluggish isn’t an unknown concept and often we, as women, simply push through. Our on-the-go lifestyles may make us feel productive, but when pushed too far, our accomplishments can come at the expense of our health and spiritual well-being. It is imperative that we pay attention to the warning signs our body is showing us.
For most, feeling tired or worn down might lead you to think you need more sleep. While sleep is critical to feeling whole, rest can be so much more than closing your eyes at night. Rest involves your whole being. It restores your physical health, enhances your performance and achieves a sense of wellness. Even small bouts of rest can impact your daily routines. Relaxing the mind and body, taking some deep breaths and offering thanks to God for the beauty that surrounds you can lift your spirit and cleanse your soul of the weight the world lays upon your shoulders.
Here are some tips to add more rest into your purpose-driven life.
1. Being Mindful In The Moment
By staying in the moment, we begin to recognize how our bodies feel and what our thoughts are saying. It is by this state of presence that can notice stress and begin to breathe in God’s gentle touch. By relaxing muscles and quieting the brain, rest can help restore a sense of calm during times of exhaustion, illness, or overexertion.
2. Gift Yourself with a Time out
Sometimes, we simply have to lay it down and walk away from a stressful environment. That could mean a walk down the hall at work, moving to another room in the house, or if there’s nowhere to go, pick up a bottle of water and take several long sips with some deep breaths in between. This gives your brain a few moments to slow itself down and think about how you want to respond in a healthy way to the situation. A short, simple prayer can help you re-center yourself on who you are and how you want to show up in the world.
3. Take a Nap
While traveling abroad, I always loved how other cultures, incorporate a short period of rest in the middle of the day. Even the Romans in the first century B.C. took regular mid-afternoon breaks called meridiari, latin for mid-day. We, too, have these mid-day breaks, but they’re called lunch hours. (How many of us work through those). How could that look different if you intentionally gave 10 minutes to just closing your eyes and being still? There’s a body of scientific evidence suggesting the positive results you can achieve, body, mind, and soul as you nap. Here are a few benefits:
- Reduce brain fog
- Enhance concentration
- Improve mood
- Stimulate creativity
- Energize problem solving
- Decrease stress
- Strengthen the immune system
4. Avoid Caffeine
This is something I’ve been trying hard to work on. I’m a coffee lover. It just says “Sit and relax with me.” But it never fails, once I’ve had more than my two-morning cups of coffee, I’m jittery – which only adds to the stress of the day. Caffeine can add both physical and mental stress to your body. If you need an energy boost, look to a nutrition-packed smoothie for that mid-day slump. Also, don’t pass on the idea of extra water as well. Water has so many great health benefits. You might be surprised how this one may improve your mental alertness and energy levels.
Here are a few signs that your body might just needs rest:
- Sore Muscles
- Dehydration
- Inability to make decisions
- Irritability
- Brain Fog
The goal here is to rest and BE present. Start small – goals don’t have to be huge, but they should be intentional and measurable. How will you gift yourself to start with 10 minutes a day to rest? What will it look like? Where will you go? What obstacles might you encounter? How will you address those? Taking opportunities for both mental and physical rest might not be as challenging as you think. We need to find that delicate balance.
If you need some help setting goals and creating strategies, coaching might be something you’d like to explore. Book a FREE discovery call with me today to see if this might be a good fit for you.
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