Does anyone out there know how to rest?
A few months ago I realized that I don't...or at least I don't know very much about resting.
I came back from a vacation and realized just how exhausted I was, and ever since one of my preoccupations has been with trying to understand and practice resting.
The next few posts on this blog will be my current journey into learning to rest - but it's something I'm still very much in the middle of. If anyone reading this has anything to add or teach me about it
please tell me, maybe even add to the comments section so we can all learn.
So, I've been trying to slow down...which is hard...and it only seems to make a little difference.
I tried Googling it, I tried Amazoning it, and I'm really surprised
that there isn't much out there (at least in the standard ways we access
information these days) about rest and resting.
Perhaps it's a sign of the times.
Perhaps we've been busy and tired for so long that we've forgotten what rest even looks like. If you look at a lot of the advice that's out there about resting - it tends to focus on engaging in certain practices mostly for purpose of being able to squeeze more out of life and be more productive.
I haven't been entirely sure how to even define "rest".
Before this, I assumed resting was just cessation of activity, but I'm learning that's not quite right, or at least, it fails to capture the complexity of tiredness and rest. There isn't just one kind of fatigue, so it probably makes sense that there isn't just one kind of rest.
I'm starting to think that rest isn't just about activity levels, it actually has something to do with the demands we experience in our inner and outer worlds. That rest and fatigue depend heavily on how much we or others are requiring ourselves to do and be responsible for.
But more on this later.
For now, I invite you who read this blog to journey with me. To search and hopefully find rest in our lives. To find the kind of "rest" that "rest-ores" us.
Now back to work :P
Hmm. Your posts about hurrying and your posts about rest (and writer's block, as I haven't blogged in ages...) really resonate with me. They kind of go together, don't they? I tend to hurry because I'm not great at time management and need to rush around at the last minute, well aware of how inefficient this habit is. And rest- well, I like to think I've gotten better at this since moving to a new place and not having a chock-full schedule, but I can't be sure I just haven't gotten better at laziness when I am not so busy...so I look forward to catching up on the rest of your posts and journeying in that as well (although I realize you wrote these awhile ago).
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your words and your thoughts.