“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.
Dennis says
“Rather than defining your life by what you do, you can begin to define it by who you are.” That gets to the core issue facing everyone, the matter of identity. Who are you? Who defines you? Absent a spiritual understanding, there is no accepted standard answer to that question. That’s where I find minimalism helpful in pursuing Truth. I get rid of thoughts and ideas that aren’t beneficial and simplify my thought life. At the end of the day, I am a new creation in Christ, and that’s good enough for me. Thanks for all the inspiring articles. Keep up the good work!!!
julie says
aka Shabbat. I came to Sabbath, or Shabbat, or Shabbos, depending on one’s background, in my 20s, and had become more lax in observance recently. My son prompted us to return to the unplugged, quiet Shabbats he grew up with. Putting electronics away and not handling money disconnect us from distraction and reconnect us to who and what really matters. friends, walks, and of course, a nap.
ren says
Today I will be resting. Yesterday we got so much accomplished, I have a hard time just resting, relaxing or reflecting, meditating, praying. Today Im sick with a cold, the Packers are on at noon, and I’m going to read the Sunday paper, do the suduko, and take a nap. If I feel up to it, I’m going to work on making pinecone garland for winter decoration outside.
Bobbi Kies says
I’m retired now, but when I was working with 2 kids at home, we limited our children to 2 activities outside of school – usually a sport and a (very) part time job. I learned to tidy the house each night before bed (15 min) and the kids were responsible for several household chores and the condition of their own rooms. I found it much easier to clean on a Saturday morning when things were in their place and I didn’t have to spend time putting other people’s stuff away. 2 hours later, I was done, house was clean, and kids and parents had 1 1/2 days for play, leisure, family time, etc. Kids were expected to help with yard work when needed. We were lucky that our kids chose “seasonal” sport, swimming and golf, that had a start and end and was not year long. I believe early Church fathers called it “Holy Leisure”. Do whatever it takes to find some in your life. Let your standards slip a bit. Kids don’t remember a spotless house, but they do remember the places and adventures they experienced with the family. And let it go – my mom’s favorite saying (ok, she probably had close to a million of them) was “don’t love it if it can’t love you back”. A good reminder for all of us who have too much stuff.
Nellie says
What a great expression “don’t love it if it can’t love you back”! Sounds like you had a brilliant mom. I plan to add this to my expressions! Thanks for posting.
Renita says
Your mother lives on as we adopt that saying Thanks for posting.
Meg says
Once again you are my most reposted blogger. This is wonderful advice and particularly important for those recovering their life after cancer treatment. We want to ‘get back to normal’ and we can wind up getting anxious about death and ‘running out of time’. Taking time to rest for it’s own sake is so essential to a happy life. Thank you.
Roger says
A great article! My wife and I practice taking Saturday rest (Sabbath). It restores our hearts, minds, and bodies in this frenzied world. It allows us to take our minds off of the cares, worries and the bad news that bombard us on a daily basis. We do not even watch our listen to the news on that day. I cannot imagine not having a day of rest!
ACJ says
Thank you for mentioning religion. I can attest to this that being Seventh-Day Adventist has helped me deal with stress. We follow the Jewish rest day from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. We do not work or purchase. But there are plenty of fun things to do like worshipping, singing, hiking, crafts, photography and the likes. My most favorite is napping. My children love Saturdays because they don’t have to do house chores and the house is peaceful. We have some Christian music and sometimes watch nature films. Studies have shown that our church members live 10 years longer than the average American. We try to eat healthy but most importantly, we manage our stress through our practice of weekly rest. I hope this sheds some light as to what other religions do to rest. I respect what others do and I support their way of managing stress. But I can’t wait for Saturday.
Isma says
Hi Joshua! What does it mean exactly when you say “concentrated rest”? What activities are you allowed to do and not allowed to do during this day/time?
Debbie says
Isma, I would encourage you to continue studying this topic for yourself. It is not more rules to follow but choosing to stop. I recently read “The Gift of Rest” by Senator Joe Lieberman. It is written from a Jewish perspective and intended for everyone of us to help all of us experience the gift that rest is. One of my big take aways from that book was no electronics on your rest day. We all know how many empty hours our gadgets suck out of life without giving much back in return.
Neville Bendiola says
Great advice. I have a friend who does this (Sundays) where he chooses to never do anything and even shuts his cell phone down. I will try to plan my rest days more often!
Neville
http://www.frugalnev.com
Kristi Orozco says
Perfectly stated! Thank you for a big reminder. I feel much better that all different sorts of to dos are able to wait for later. My mind, body, soul and baby boy on the way need rest but in a healthier and peaceful place. My current room is not that place!
Tina says
I agree with your idea that if you can work less do it. You will be surprised at how little you need to live on. Clothes last longer and you can buy used. My pots and dishes are over 40 years old. If your job gives you no rest perhaps you are in the wrong place.