“He that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities.” —Benjamin Franklin
Ask any physician and they will tell you rest is essential for physical health. When the body is deprived of sleep, it is unable to rebuild and recharge itself adequately. Your body requires rest.
Ask any athlete and they will tell you rest is essential for physical training. Rest is needed for muscles to repair themselves and prevent injury. This is true whether you run marathons, pitch baseballs, or climb rocks. Your muscles require rest.
Ask many of yesterday’s philosophers and they will tell you rest is essential for the mind. Leonardo da Vinci said, “Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer.” And Ovid, the Roman poet, said, “Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.” Your mind requires rest.
Ask most religious leaders and they will tell you rest is essential for the soul. Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Baha’i, and Wiccan (among others) teach the importance of setting aside a period of time for rest. Your soul requires rest.
Ask many corporate leaders and they will tell you that rest is essential for productivity. Forbes magazine recently wrote, “You can only work so hard and do so much in a day. Everybody needs to rest and recharge.” Your productivity requires rest.
Physicians, athletes, philosophers, poets, religious leaders, and corporate leaders all tell us the same thing: take time to rest. It is absolutely essential for a balanced, healthy life.
Yet, when you ask people in today’s frenzied culture if they intentionally set aside time for rest, most will tell you they are too busy. Even fewer would say they set aside any concentrated time (12-24 hours) for rest. There are just too many things to get done, too many demands, too many responsibilities, too many bills, and too much urgency. Nobody can afford to waste time resting in today’s results-oriented world.
Unfortunately, this hectic pace is causing damage to our quality of life. We are destroying every sense of our being (body, mind, and soul). There is a reason we run faster and work harder, but only fall further behind. Our lives have become too full and too out of balance. Somewhere along the way, we lost the essential practice of concentrated rest.
But we would be wise to reclaim the practice of resting one day each week. Consider the benefits of concentrated rest for your body, mind, and soul:
Healthier body. We each get one life and one body to live it in. Therefore, we eat healthy, we exercise, and we watch our bad habits. But then we allow our schedules to fill up from morning to evening. Rest is as essential to our physical health as the water we drink and the air we breathe.
Less stress. Stress is the perception that the situations we are facing are greater than the resources we have to deal with them—resources such as time, energy, ability, and help from others. Concentrated rest confronts stress in two ways. First, it reduces the demands of the situation. We have no demands on us as long as we have the ability to mentally let go of unfinished tasks. Secondly, rest reduces stress by increasing our resources, particularly energy.
Deeper relationships. A day set aside each week for rest allows relationships with people to deepen and be strengthened. When we aren’t rushing off to work or soccer practice, we are able to enjoy each other’s company and a healthy conversation. And long talks prove to be far more effective in building community than short ones on the ride to the mall.
Opportunity for reflection. Sometimes it is hard to see the forest through the trees. It is even more difficult to see the forest when we are running through the trees. Concentrated rest allows us to take a step back, to evaluate our lives, to identify our values, and determine if our life is being lived for them.
Balance. Taking one day of your week and dedicating it to rest will force you to have an identity outside of your occupation. It will foster relationships outside of your fellow employees. It will foster activities and hobbies outside work. It will give life and identity outside of your Monday-Friday occupation. Rather than defining your life by what you do, you can begin to define it by who you are.
Increased production. Just like resting physical muscles allows them opportunity to rejuvenate which leads to greater physical success, providing our minds with rest provides it opportunity to refocus and rejuvenate. More work is not better work. Smarter work is better work.
Reserve for life’s emergencies. Crisis hits everyone. Nobody who is alive is immune from the trials of life. By starting the discipline today of concentrated rest, you will build up reserves for when the unexpected emergencies of life strike and rest is no longer an option.
Properly developing a discipline of concentrated rest requires both inward and outward changes. Consider these steps to reclaiming the lost practice of weekly rest in your life.
1. Find contentment in your current life. Much of the reason we are unable to find adequate rest is because we are under the constant impression that our lives can and should be better than they are today. This constant drive to improve our standing through the acquisition of money, power, or skills robs us of contentment and joy. Ultimately, rest is an extension of our contentment and security. Without them, simplicity and rest is difficult, if not impossible. Stop focusing on what you don’t have and start enjoying the things you do. (tweet that)
2. Plan your rest. Rest will come only from intentional planning and planning rest will come only if it is truly desired. Put it on your calendar. Learn to say no to any tasks that attempt to take precedent. Plan out your day of rest by choosing creative activities that are refreshing and encourage relationships. Understand that true rest is different than just not working. As the Cat in the Hat wisely said, “It is fun to have fun but you have to know how.” Avoid housework. Plan meals in advance to help alleviate cooking responsibilities. And by all means, turn off your television and email.
3. Take responsibility for your life. You are not a victim of your time demands. You are the creator and acceptor of them. Refuse to complain or make excuses. Change your habits instead. Remember, you are only as busy as you choose to be. Leave “if only” excuses to the kids. If needed, alert your employer about your desire for rest and tell them you will be unavailable on that particular day.
4. Embrace simplicity. Embrace a lifestyle that focuses on your values, not your possessions. It is difficult to find rest when the housework is never finished, the yard needs to be mowed, or the garage needs to be organized.
5. Include your family. It is much easier to practice the discipline of concentrated rest if your family is practicing it too. The fact that this gets more difficult as your kids get older should motivate you to start as soon as possible.
6. Live within your income. A debtor is a slave to his creditor. It is difficult to find rest for your mind when you are deep in debt. The constant distress of your responsibility to another may preclude you from truly enjoying a day off. It is possible; it’s just more difficult. Don’t overspend your income, live within it.
7. Realize the shallow nature of a results-oriented culture. If you live in a results-oriented culture where productivity alone is championed, rest is countercultural. And thus, the saying goes, “If you rest, you rust.” Rest may even be seen as a sign of weakness by others. Unfortunately, that view of humanity’s role in this world is shallow. It is true that many of the benefits from concentrated rest are not tangible; but then again, only a fool believes all good things can be counted.
Rabbi Elijah of Vilna once said, “What we create becomes meaningful to us only once we stop creating it and start to think about why we did so.” The implication is clear. We could live lives that produce countless widgets, but we won’t start truly living until we stop producing and start enjoying.
Capture the lost practice of taking rest and start living again.
Karen says
Great Blog! I recently moved halfway around the world and took my first ‘holiday’ to do a 10-day meditation and yoga retreat with the exact purpose you mention, slowing down. I returned and my Grandmother died a week later. I can personally attest to how that slowing down has provided me with the emotional reserves to better cope with this situation. Thanks for providing such a well timed blog! Time to go do my evening meditation!
Laurie says
In all my years of reading your blog, I think this is one of your best posts ever. Mahalo nui loa! Now, I think I’ll log off and go rest. :)
Tracey Fridley says
I really like your idea to “Plan Your Rest”. As a mom of six kids, I think its an awesome idea to put it on the schedule. Now…where to find it…
Jill says
I’m old enough to remember when nothing was open on Sundays – no stores, no nothing! You went to church; read the Sunday paper; had dinner with the extended family; and everyone watched the one television in the house, together. Hard to imagine that today.
Debbi says
My Amish neighbors, very hard workers, have church every other Sunday. I asked one of the young women once what they do on the Sundays they don’t have church. She answered simply, “We rest.” They mostly rest on church Sundays as well, although the women do prepare a meal. They are good examples for the rest of us.
Kurt Middelkoop says
Took a look at your site….so after 26 years of marriage, 3 daughters…..it looks like we do all these things…..we do need to work on turning off the phones/computers…but we do not allow these items for many of our functions. Most of our friends would would say that we are “not normal”…….we know we dont fit in…but we just love our life and time together as a family. We belive that the start is with our relationship with Christ.
Kris says
Jesus said, “come unto me all ye who labor and I will give you rest”
His burden is easy and his yoke is light. :)
Jaimee says
Time to think about why you do what you do: that’s why I like to journal. It gives me a chance to stop and think about what I’m doing and see where all the pieces in my life fit together. I also find that taking breaking while painting or writing keeps me from getting stuck on where to go next. I have to stop to start again. A balanced diet of thought keeps my mind regular.
Reynante says
Yes! Rest is so much important…I work hard 7days a week for 13hrs per day and even brought my obligation and responsibilities of my job at home of what to do next day…but when I become over exhausted of my work, I do really don’t care of doing it. I meditate and relax, off every gadgets that I have and sleep for a whole day… :) thank you for this post it reminds me the importance of recharging our body from stress of work…
God bless you all!!
Wisetrout says
Thank you for this timely reminder. I was just debating a 15 minute lie down :) I’ll be adding the link to this post to a letter I’m writing to our local school board/high school. I’m frustrated with the acceptance of and expectation that Varsity sports for my son are 7 days a week, with mandatory games and practices on weekends and over school vacations. I’m in the minority, but I think this unreasonable. Be well!
priest's wife (@byzcathwife) says
if I were you- I would limit my child to 1 sport- so that it was ‘only’ half of the school year. It would be difficult, but a compromise…