Seems like an obvious answer. Rest is when you are not working, right? Rest is when you zone out. It is when you are not doing anything. Rest is when you are sleeping, correct?
I’m beginning to think there is more to rest than these simple answers might suggest. True rest has to be more than not doing anything or sleeping. It must lead to renewal, to a refreshing. It must be absent of stress but preparing you for future stress.
I realize I don’t know what rest is and I don’t know how to rest.
This sounds crazy, but not working stresses me out. Working stresses me out too, but I think not working stresses me out more. When I am “resting,” I typically am worried about the work I am not getting done. While I yearn for a healthy rhythm of work, rest and relationships, I am not there yet.
What about you? How do you define rest? How do you rest?
2 Comments
Sr. Mary Joseph Suter
I rest by prayer, reading and exercise. As Daughters of Charity, we spend an hour each day in mental prayer. I read from the book Give Us This Day, which has the Mass readings for the day and a commentary on it, and an article about a blessed person, not necisarily a Saint, or even Catholic, but someone whose life has contirbuted to good in the world, and seving mankind in some way. My reading includes fiction and nonfiction–most from my Nook. I try to do 40 minutes of yoga in the morning.
adamsuter
Nice! Thanks for sharing. Very helpful.