Why is a getaway so powerful?

In this episode, Dr. Rodney and Karen talk about their new practice of getting away at least once a quarter. This is called a "shmita" in the Bible and refers to the sabbatical the land was to take every seven years.

You will love to hear the relaxation in their voices as they recorded this podcast in the mountains of Colorado a few weeks ago.

Are you looking for a way to boost creativity?
Do you need to catch your breath and start anew?

How often do you get out of town and rest?
What benefits has it brought you?

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Transcript

Why is a getaway so powerful?

[00:51] Dr. Rodney: Hi. Welcome to Stance for Health Podcast. I'm Dr. Rodney, seated here on this fine what we call shmita or extended Sabbath with Karen Sebastian-Hope Lady-Wirth.

[01:03] The Hope Lady: And we are having the best time. It has been incredible. We are in South Fork, Colorado. And guess what? I have been cross country skiing, and I kind of did great this morning, didn't I?

[01:23] Dr. Rodney: You sure did. You did! You are a pro.

[01:26] The Hope Lady: Well, I still have a long ways to go, but here's what we thought we would do. We thought we would just focus in on what is a shmita and why we are doing it.

[01:39] Dr. Rodney: Well, the first place, when you consider what a Shmita is, it sounds like a foreign language, and you'd be right.

[01:46] The Hope Lady: It is. It's Hebrew.

[01:48] Dr. Rodney: It's Hebrew for extended Sabbath. In other words, more than the day. It's about once a quarter. There are feasts and then there are times to get away. This is one of those times to get away.

[02:00] The Hope Lady: What we're really talking about is a short sabbatical. Most of us tend to think about sabbatical as the lucky people who get to take a whole year off, like professors or in our case, Pastor Robert Morris. We learned about the principle of rest from his book Take the Day Off, but this is something that we are building in quarterly to our schedule.

[02:28] Dr. Rodney: The other thing, too, is I think that we really get a chance to hear from God in a new way, hear from our Creator. Look at creation, look at green space. Look at white space. We haven't really said white space, blue space.

[02:43] The Hope Lady: This morning we did.

[02:45] Dr. Rodney: We heard the running water and it was amazing. And we're in the middle of town, really, the outskirts of town. We're about a stone's throw away from the police station. It's so quiet. We were talking yesterday when mentioning how quiet it is, what kind of things are you looking for with the shmita.

[03:07] The Hope Lady: It's more or less what you'd call a deafening quiet. Because when we go out our front door, where we live in the Dallas Fort Wirth Metroplex, you can hear three freeways. Well, two freeways and one tollway, and there's like a roar in here. There's none of that unless one sole vehicle goes by.

[03:31] Dr. Rodney: That's right. And they have no speed bumps, but those things that warn you that there's a stop sign or stop light coming up soon. Right now, I'm just looking around. I'm still seeing snow. It still feels almost chilly, slightly chilly. If we ever do this video, I suppose you'll be able to see that we're bundled up just a little bit.

[03:52] The Hope Lady: I'm making him look into the camera. We don't usually do that, but at some point we may do a YouTube, and this will be precious. And I don't want him looking off into the hills once his health comes from. So we're going to talk about three R's in Lashmita.

[04:10] Dr. Rodney: Don't you think that the first R, at least the one that comes to mind, anyway? Maybe most of us that grew up with knowing the three R's, or hearing.

[04:20] The Hope Lady: About three R's, reading and writing and arithmetic, I never could figure out, because writing starts with a W and arithmetic starts with an A, but okay, well.

[04:30] Dr. Rodney: That’s a different direction. I actually thought we're talking about rest and reconciliation and rehabilitation, something like I've.

[04:38] The Hope Lady: Never heard those three, haven't you?

[04:39] Dr. Rodney: Maybe that was rehab talk, what you're doing for your joints in the event that they don't.

[04:47] The Hope Lady: Maybe we like alliterations because our Pastor Robert likes alliterations. And having been a pastor myself, I tend to come up with a lot of R's and a lot of P's. But in this case, we want to talk about restoring relationships, rest and rejuvenation.

[05:12] Dr. Rodney: I think it's interesting that as soon as you said restore, that rest actually is in that word. It's sort of a prefix to it.

[05:22] The Hope Lady: Yes, it is.

[05:23] Dr. Rodney: When you restore something, you bring it back to its original place. Almost like God saying, that's not just good, that's very good.

[05:31] The Hope Lady: That's right.

[05:32] Dr. Rodney: And I like that about relationships. When you restore. Restore and reconciliation is pretty close to that. But as far as restoration goes, it's a little bit like what our word for the year is that you turn around, return it's like a uturn, hey, we're going this way. Let's head back the other direction and head back to original design.

[05:59] The Hope Lady: Oh, I like that. And if you think about that part original design of rest and the Jewish culture is that they worked really hard so on the Shabbat, on the Sabbath, they could rest just like we did, getting ready to come on this short trip. And you're anticipating it and you're looking forward to it, and it's just so amazing what happens internally with the shmita.

[06:32] Dr. Rodney: Yes. You can feel your soul coming back to you when you get to a desolate place. Desolate is almost like seemingly without life, like a desert. This is, on the contrary. Yeah. Your body comes back, your soul comes back, and it's like, oh, I found a living place. Right.

[06:56] The Hope Lady: And some of it this morning, especially where we were as the sun was rising from behind those tall, tall trees and just emanating hope rays. It's almost so much beauty that city dwellers like us are like so much. I can barely take it in.

[07:18] Dr. Rodney: And maybe you've come to a place like this before when everything that what Karen was describing, everything you described was like everywhere you look it looks like a postcard.

[07:29] The Hope Lady: Oh yeah.

[07:29] Dr. Rodney: Everywhere. Every single place you turn could be a postcard. That's a postcard.

[07:33] The Hope Lady: And taking pictures, pictures, pictures. And finally, you're like, I'm just going to take a mental picture because I'm going to run out of space. That's all this so that's restoring us to restoring our souls, right?

[07:48] Dr. Rodney: Yeah. The cool thing about it is you might think, well, South Fork, Colorado, that sounds so far away a little bit. It's really just a day drive.

[07:59] The Hope Lady: Yeah.

[08:00] Dr. Rodney: And we enjoyed keeping the car on the road all the way here.

[08:04] The Hope Lady: Exactly. And the time together. So that's the other r is relationship. It's not just being at the destination, it's getting to where you're going in life. It's getting on the road and packing and talking and worshipping and we listen to a cold podcast and talking about it and then some silence. But as far as relationships goes, dr. Rodney and I are old newlyweds. It'll be our 6th anniversary in June. Already feels like longer in the best of ways.

[08:42] Dr. Rodney: We've been in practice together for about five years now too, right. Started in 2018 with stance, you mean?

[08:50] The Hope Lady: Yes.

[08:51] Dr. Rodney: And that's where the idea for stance for health podcast came up too, because we really wanted you you're listening to this right now. You get an extra dose of or an extra look at or opportunity to discover something about health that perhaps you.

[09:07] The Hope Lady: Hadn’t considered before and that you can do this now. You're probably saying you have no idea what my life is. I can't take a shmita, I can't take four days away from everything. The thing is you can it just may not be geographically but you can lay things down. We're going to talk about that more as we close. Dr. Rodney, as far as relationship, how has this meets up in for you in our relationship, you and me? I'm putting them on the spot. You had to take deep pause.

[09:43] Dr. Rodney: I was already taking a deep pause. I wasn't thinking about what to say next.

[09:49] The Hope Lady: That's perfect.

[09:50] Dr. Rodney: And I think what's beautiful about our relationship is I don't really have to think about what to say next. It's ripe with the moment and when you're at rest and you don't have to be concerned about the next word. It's like there's no adrenaline. There your adrenals, your endocrine system gets a time to relaxate. Rehabilitate too and relax along with it. Almost a coined a new word there.

[10:17] The Hope Lady: Yes, relax.

[10:21] Dr. Rodney: Somewhere.

[10:22] The Hope Lady: Going somewhere coin that and we can maybe make that part of this dance tribe. Okay. You're going to relax debilitate here that.

[10:31] Dr. Rodney: Was to answer your question in a way is that it just seems like there's a sense of flow in our relationship, and I get an opportunity simply to look at you again with fresh eyes, new eyes, see another aspect of you that I hadn't seen before.

[10:49] The Hope Lady: Thank you.

[10:50] Dr. Rodney: Appreciate you all the more. And I think that once the dust sort of settles and the adrenaline, whether we realize it or not from not travel because that's its own kind of rush, but the day to day rush, we unplug from that and there's like that sense of well, okay, I can really focus on my wife here a little better. We do it every night ish but not the same way. This gets us another perspective, brings us.

[11:22] The Hope Lady: To another level of appreciation. I love that. And one of the things that we've done in the rejuvenation lifestyle is that we cook everywhere we go and it's fun, it is not burdensome and it makes it so easy because we just partner in the kitchen and we just do great and I love that so much. So yeah, shmita really helps relationship with each other. What about with the Lord?

[11:58] Dr. Rodney: Each night I've had some really special dreams. Oh, you have that sit with me in a completely different way than if I was say back home. It's the kind of thing that gets me awake and wakes me up in the middle of the night, but not in a bad way because God's really got my attention and he can say, I really want you to work on this and not in a God's. The Author. And he created all this. So I am an open book to allow myself to hear what he's having to say because this is about him ultimately, because he designed relationships, he designed our bodies. He designed Smita and Sabbath for us.

[12:50] The Hope Lady: I love that that it's for us. And the other part I was just thinking, as you said, that is restoration. One of the things that we are doing in rejuvenation lifestyle is we have practices not only how we eat, but also we do cold exposure and we do breath holds. And just a testimonial to the breath holds. So we were in URA last summer for our daughter's wedding and it was at 7000ft and I was so out of breath I wanted to record a reel and I never was able to use it because I sounded like so I started doing breath holds with Doug and now I'm out doing something brand new. Restoration. I have never been cross country skiing until this year, and I am finding it not only possible but invigorating and fun. But I'm not out of breath.

[13:56] Dr. Rodney: And if you haven't heard it on other podcasts, she's a breath hold champion. Even though she's not holding her head underwater yet, she's doing it more than 20 minutes without putting her head underwater. So I wasn't even able to do it for four minutes today. And she's over there smiling and meditating.

[14:17] The Hope Lady: And you know where I go for my prayer time is I found a new spot this morning. It's at a creek called Beaver Creek. I can hear the water and I can see the sun coming up through the trees. So that's what shmita does. It gives us restoration. And I know you might be listening to us with a little bit of envy or and that must be nice, maybe if you are, I want to encourage you that you can do this right where you are. You can create your own place of rest. How do you recommend they do that, Doc?

[15:03] Dr. Rodney: You may find that, as we have, that I heard this from Marty Solomon, for those of you that haven't heard of him. He does a podcast that really goes through the scriptures and does a deep dive into its context. And what he said is from his teaching around the rabbis that he was around. Marty Solomon says that in his experience, if you're thinking about it too hard, you're doing it wrong.

[15:33] The Hope Lady: Oh, I like that. That's going to come in as we go practice some more cross country where I'm not.

[15:40] Dr. Rodney: So that's perfect for what you just said because you're going to get Karen, you're going to get to the place, like practicing Sabbath and like Shabbat and Shmita, for those of you that are listening, it's going to be like cross country ski or riding a bike. It's going to be second nature. And you'll know how to unplug.

[16:03] The Hope Lady: How to unplug.

[16:05] Dr. Rodney: We haven't turned the TV on once here. And I even found myself like, okay, I'm posting something on Facebook because it was part of a dream and it's the mercy man and the hope lady. I found myself getting sucked in. It's like, no, I'm not here for that.

[16:21] The Hope Lady: Right.

[16:22] Dr. Rodney: And I didn't punish myself. And yet I realized, okay, well, I'm practicing shmita.

[16:28] The Hope Lady: So, unplugged from media is like a huge step towards me, towards creating your own shmita. Even if you can't come to this beautiful place in Colorado.

[16:37] Dr. Rodney: I think that's right.

[16:38] The Hope Lady: Wow, that is such good advice. What about also settling inside for some true rest?

[16:50] Dr. Rodney: I think what I'm hearing you say is that you're preparing your heart for it.

[16:56] The Hope Lady: Yeah.

[16:58] Dr. Rodney: In the place where you were preparing for it take time to say, I'm looking forward to this. I'm looking forward to this. While you're busying, about to pack your luggage or unplug from everything because it takes a little bit extra to prepare it, be thinking about, hey, this is what I'm looking forward to. There is a promise that comes with it. Yes, there really is.

[17:25] The Hope Lady: Yes.

[17:25] Dr. Rodney: And you're going to be different. You're going to be better as a result of it. Did that answer your question?

[17:33] The Hope Lady: That was beautiful.

[17:34] Dr. Rodney: Good.

[17:35] The Hope Lady: Prepare your own shmita, whether you can get away or not. And I think that it's very similar to the Sabbath where you make the meal you have, make it easy on yourself and internally you come to a place of rest. And that's what we're talking about.

[17:54] Dr. Rodney: I haven't done this yet, but I love the concept. There's a guy that I was listening to. It was a podcast. Don't even remember where I heard about it. I think it was somebody that was interviewing a guest who had done some amazing things. He had set some records, land records, for the amount of time it took to cross some part of Alaska or Antarctica or someplace like that, south Pole. And he suggests and recommends taking a whole day and just going for a walk. Whether you're walking that whole day or not, you're getting away. And pretty soon, everything that you've been fighting about, I got to do this. I got to do this. No, you're just walking right now.

[18:41] The Hope Lady: I love it. That is beautiful. That is beautiful. And it basically comes down to simplifying. Do you really have to do so much? Are you actually getting that checklist done? Most people are not, and yet they're frustrated because they feel like they will never get caught up. Who told you you had to be at this certain point at a certain time in your life? And that's what I want to tell you, that at my young age, this is my first time to get on skis, and I'm loving it.

[19:21] Dr. Rodney: There was a thought that I had around something you were saying just a little bit ago. And if you would have told me six years ago when I was still working in corporate six days a week and then being in leadership at a church on Sunday, essentially not having a day off for years if you'd have told me with my nose to the grindstone at that point that I could redesign my life to look like this, I might have laughed at you and I might have thought it was impossible.

[19:56] The Hope Lady: Exactly.

[19:57] Dr. Rodney: And yet here we are. We took a step of faith. So, take a step of faith today. You can do this, but not without a plan. Get a plan and obviously have a plan. And yet some of it comes up as you go, almost like taking that walk for a day sort of thing.

[20:17] The Hope Lady: I like that very much. And, you know, the leap of faith that we took to start stance chiropractic was not ever hard. It was one step at a time. And we have learned to live with great contentment and just to close us off. That's our scripture for the year. In returning and rest, you will be saved and quietness and strength will be your rescue. How does that scripture apply to the Shmita, Doc?

[20:57] Dr. Rodney: If you look at that in context, if I'm not mistaken, that's actually somewhere around the time of Babylon. Yes. Isaiah and so with somebody that's going through a sense of captivity, desolation. Desolation. You may say, I want to get back. I want to reengage with God the way that I once did or reengage with him for the first time. I want to engage with him the first time.

[21:26] The Hope Lady: I want to restore my relationship.

[21:29] Dr. Rodney: Yes. From bitterness to forgiveness, from fear to peace. That's what this means to me is I'm trusting God with this time, that when I get back, I'm going to be better and I'm going to better serve the people that I meet face to face on a day-to-day basis.

[21:49] The Hope Lady: That's right.

[21:50] Dr. Rodney: And the one that I get to see face to face on a regular basis.

[21:53] The Hope Lady: And we are in the process of writing a book. It's the most unusual writing experience. I've authored four of them and they've been stressful, nose to the grindstone, beat myself up experiences. Instead. This one, we're recording podcasts. I'm getting the transcript of it and I'm going to rewrite the concepts that we've talked about. So, thank you for sharing that and thank you for being willing, like we are, to take your Stance for Health so long.

[22:30] Dr. Rodney: We'll talk to you next time.

[22:34] Dr. Rodney: Thank you for joining us at Stance for Health podcast, where getting healthy and staying that way are not as complicated as you might think.

[22:42] Dr. Rodney: Subscribe now and discover steps and small changes that can increase your energy and open the door to vibrant health and longevity. This podcast has been helpful. Please write a review. We'll see you next time.