How to Get Some Rest TODAY
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Be really honest with yourself – Do you spend even one day week resting?
Rest doesn’t have to mean that you sit on the couch all day and do nothing. Rest isn’t just about physical restoration. True rest is doing something that restores your soul. That can be worship, quiet time, intentional time with friends, game night in your family, planting or tending to a garden.
For a lot of us, the concept of taking a day of rest is uncomfortable because it is counter-cultural. But breaking cultural norms isn’t a bad thing in this case. Taking even just one day to remove your self from life’s rat race and give your self time to breathe and reconnect with God, your family, friends and yourself, is one of the best things you can do. Good rest is a step that will go so much further in finding value and purpose in your life.
TAKE ACTION:
Don’t let the next week go by without giving yourself a rest day.
1. Clear your calendar. Pick a day this week. Any day ending with a Y (I really love Dad Jokes). And clear your calendar. I am almost 100% certain that you have put things on your schedule that you don’t actually have to do, or that you said yes to out of guilt. Get those things off your schedule and take a day to just do the things you are interested in.
2. Fill your day with intentional time. Don’t use your free day to surf Facebook or Pinterest. Use this time to bake cookies with your kids, take a walk with your spouse, share a bottle of wine with your friends. This isn’t about resting your body, it is about finding rest for your soul!
3. Give yourself grace. Taking a day of rest is likely different from your norm and that takes some adjustment. Just because you decided to check your email and get lost for an hour (or more) does not mean that you should give in and let the rest of the day go to errands or emails and the like. Wrap up that one task and get back to your restoring rest.
4. Tune out unnecessary distractions. So often we spend our free time with the TV on, while we make dinner and try to catch up with the in-laws. Multitasking is a rainbow-colored unicorn that keeps you from focusing your attention and spending intentional time. When you have several things going on (for me it is, laptop open, TV on, text messages going and a husband talking) you lose the chance to fully experience any one of them. And that can be exhausting. So the next time your husband speaks, shut the other stuff off and focus on that!
5. Do something that connects you to God. I think this is so key. Because only through our own personal relationship with Jesus can we ever find the divine rest that He so badly wants to cover us with. So go to church, read your Bible, spend time in prayer or listen to some God-glorifying music (I highly recommend Psalm Vol. II by Shane & Shane – all the feels). In my opinion, this is the most restorative thing I can do each day.
Rest is so undervalued in our society and most of us don’t even know how to put rest into practice. My prayer is that you can put these 5 steps into action and spend a day (or even an hour for starters!) getting some true rest.
Let me know in the comments below how you rest and what you do on your rest day!
Yes, please. Love this!