Feel overwhelmed by the relentless buzz of your phone, the unending torrent of emails, and the cacophony of modern life? Let me, Sally Burlington, guide you through the tranquil paths of sensory rest on the Create Harmony podcast. We're bombarded every day with an excess of sensory stimuli, and on this episode, I illuminate the steps to reclaiming your peace. I share wisdom from the likes of Richard Rohr and Douglas McKelvey, and sprinkle in tales from my own journey with media fasts, offering you a blueprint to carve out moments of serenity amidst the chaos.
Embark on a journey within, where silence is not merely the absence of noise, but a space for growth and self-discovery. Join me as we continue to explore the multifaceted wonder of rest in the weeks ahead.
Feel overwhelmed by the relentless buzz of your phone, the unending torrent of emails, and the cacophony of modern life? Let me, Sally Burlington, guide you through the tranquil paths of sensory rest on the Create Harmony podcast. We're bombarded every day with an excess of sensory stimuli, and on this episode, I illuminate the steps to reclaiming your peace. I share wisdom from the likes of Richard Rohr and Douglas McKelvey, and sprinkle in tales from my own journey with media fasts, offering you a blueprint to carve out moments of serenity amidst the chaos.
Embark on a journey within, where silence is not merely the absence of noise, but a space for growth and self-discovery. Join me as we continue to explore the multifaceted wonder of rest in the weeks ahead.
To learn more, go to mycreateharmony.com
Speaker 1:
Welcome back to the Create Harmony podcast. What you'll find here is a place to refresh your life, to raise your well-being and refocus you on peace and joy. You'll hear ways to ground yourself in gratitude and ways to notice small, everyday joys of life. So I'm Sally Burlington and this is Episode 66. And over the last few weeks we've been making a study of the concept of rest. I've shared in earlier episodes that we seem to have ample resources when it comes to goal setting, productivity, getting things done. You can find a planning tool or a workshop or an app to help you and guide you through every part of that process. But rest seems to be something we talk about wanting. It's something that we feel like we need, we know it's important, but we don't devote a ton of energy to knowing how to access rest. We don't discuss with our friends, share ideas about how the best ways to rest are. So when preparing for these episodes, I remembered I was thinking about the concept of rest and I remembered that when our younger daughter was small, she would tell us that she felt rusty when she got tired, and this became a common phrase around our house we were rusty instead of tired. It's funny how she clued into the need for rest instead of focusing on how tired she was. Sometimes, children say it best. So, in order to understand our needs more clearly, during this examination of rest, we've looked to the wisdom of Dr Sandra Dalton Smith, and she's the person who we can attribute the seven types of rest to. She's the person who's an expert in the field and she divided rest into these seven categories physical, mental, emotional, social, sensory, creative and spiritual. So we've already discussed mental rest and emotional rest and social rest in our previous three episodes. Did you see yourselves in any of those discussions? For me, I recognized that I could benefit from some mental rest and some social rest, so I've been looking for ways to add that to my life.
Speaker 1:
Now, today we're going to address the concept of sensory rest. The definition of sensory rest is taking a break from any sensory input, and what I mean is these are your things like light, noise, various forms of media, moving yourself to a quiet space with low lighting. That's the kind of thing we're envisioning here and now. I wonder if this type of rest is more challenging for us to achieve, and the reason I say that is because our world is pretty noisy, just as normal operating procedure. I don't even think we realize how much noise is in our world and around us every day. There is music in every store, every restaurant, every sporting event.
Speaker 1:
It's tough to find quiet places and most of us have pretty close contact with our phones and as part of that close contact, we are accustomed to a stream of stimulation. Those devices are sending us emails, texts, social media feeds, we play games. All these things revolve around continual stimulation and engagement. Now we are not getting ready to take a turn into why technology is bad for you, but it is a recognition that your technology is leading you in the direction of lots of interaction and lots of stimulation. So what we're urging you to do here is lead your technology, not let your technology lead you.
Speaker 1:
Thank you, but part of that is the recognition that when you pull yourself away from those things, it might not take long before you begin to feel bored, you begin to feel restless. Our brains are accustomed to those patterns and they tend to return to them before we even realize it. So therefore, when we attempt to get sensory rest, it's probably not going to be too long before we find ourselves seeking the same media stimulation that we were intentionally trying to move away from. So, in order to effectively get sensory rest, we have to make a conscious choice to resist that temptation to return to your device and to reduce the noise around us. At times in the past I have taken a media fast, maybe for a whole day, just checked my device once or twice throughout the whole day, maybe two. If that's not doable for you, even a few hours would be helpful if you would just put your device away from you and turn the noise down for a few hours. If you can't do a few hours, do just a few minutes. Make it a small spoonful so that you can add a little bit more sensory rest into your day.
Speaker 1:
So now we're going to shift our attention to what we call our rest reflections. We've been doing these at the end of each episode as a way to bring your mind towards a more restful posture and really help you connect more deeply with each of these types of rest. So for our rest reflections today we'll hear from Richard Rohr, douglas McKelvie, stephen Charleston and Malika Chopra. So we begin with a meditation from Richard Rohr. If you're not familiar with Richard Rohr, he is a Franciscan priest and he's the founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation. He's written lots of books, but the one we're dealing with today is a book filled with meditations called yes and, and we will hear.
Speaker 1:
The meditation called Silence is Almost Too Simple, and it goes like this the simplest spiritual discipline is some degree of solitude and silence. To be with our own thoughts and feelings is probably the most courageous act most of us will ever do. Besides that, we invariably get bored with ourselves and all of our loneliness comes to the surface. We won't have the courage to go into that terrifying place without love to protect us and lead us, without the light and love of God overriding our own self doubt. Such silence is the most spacious and empowering technique in the world. Yet it's not a technique at all. It's precisely the refusal of all technique.
Speaker 1:
Our next rest reflection comes from Douglas McKelvie, and Mr McKelvie is known for writing liturgies and one of his most famous books, which is filled with beautiful liturgies to apply to all sorts of everyday situations, and it is called Every Moment Holy. And the liturgy that we're going to listen to today is called For when you Are Flooded With Too Much Information. And it goes like this In a world so wired and interconnected, our anxious hearts are pummeled by an endless barrage of troubling news. We are aware of more grief, o Lord, than we can rightly consider, of more suffering and scandal than we can respond to, of more hostility, hatred, horror and injustice than we can engage with compassion. But you, o Jesus, are not disquieted by such news of cruelty and terror and war. You are neither anxious nor overwhelmed. You carried the full weight of the suffering of a broken world when you hung on the cross and you carry it still. When the cacophony of universal distress unsettles us, remind us that we are but small and infinite creatures, never designed to carry the vast abstractions of great burdens, for our arms are too short and our strength is too small. Justice and mercy, healing and redemption are your great labors, and, yes, it is your good pleasure to accomplish such works through your people, but you have never asked any of us to undertake more than your grace will enable us to fulfill. Guard us, then, from shutting down our empathy or walling off our hearts because of the glut of unactionable misery that floods our awareness. You have many children in many places around this globe. Move each of our hearts to compassionately respond to the needs that intersect our actual lives, that, in all places, your body might be actively addressing the pain and brokenness of this world. Each of us liberated and empowered by your spirit to fulfill the small part of your redemptive work assigned to us. Give us discernment in the face of troubling news reports. Give us discernment to know when to pray, when to speak out, when to act and when to simply shut off our screens and our devices and to sit quietly in your presence, casting the burdens of this world upon the strong shoulders of the one who alone is able to bear them up. Amen.
Speaker 1:
Our next to rest reflection is written by Stephen Charleston. Now, stephen is a member of the Choctaw Nation and an Episcopal priest. We are hearing from his book Spirit Wheel, which is filled with beautiful poems and blessings, and the one we're going to listen to today is called Night Watch, and it goes like this Just before the sun leaves the sky and long lavender light, you can catch a glimpse of them. You need to be out in the countryside, away from the city glare. Then, if you look to the high places, the hilltop or the mesa, you may see them only for a moment standing along the horizon. They are the sentinel spirits, the ancestors, who keep the Night Watch. Each evening they take their places, appearing as quietly as the stars. These are our guardian spirits, these are our elders of eternity. If you listen, just at moonrise, you may hear them sing for only a moment. The night chant to shelter the earth, to keep the many tribes of life safe, until the distant morning. When you lay your head down and whisper your prayers, never be afraid, for the ones who love you are keeping watch their hearts beating in time with your own.
Speaker 1:
And our last rest reflection for today, it comes from the book Just Breathe by Malika Chopra, and this book, this is a little different from the other rest reflections we've talked about, because this book is an instruction manual for kids and young people and it basically helps them learn how to access mindfulness and meditation practices. So the text we're getting ready to read here is her simple instructions on how to quiet your life and your mind, and it is called the Power of Silence and it goes like this and this starts with Dr Katharine, 1930-1932. One of the most powerful, peaceful and safe places can be found right inside of you. You might feel that silence can make you feel lonely, confused or scared, but that is often because being quiet is something you are not used to. You live in a world that constantly has noise and distractions Voices, traffic machines, music, television, opinions and social media. The only time you get some quiet is at night, hopefully, when you sleep, and that is when your mind and your body rest.
Speaker 1:
Giving your mind quiet time throughout the day is healthy for your brain and your body.
Speaker 1:
That time actually changes your brain so that you can focus better, you can see things more positively and not be so tired and reactive to everything.
Speaker 1:
When you are quiet, you can honestly ask yourself questions about what you want and who you want to be. You can take away everyone's opinion and the social pressures about who you should be and listen to yourself. You know deep inside what is best for you. In that quiet space you can learn to trust yourself and in that silence you can think about how to get the life you want to live. So that concludes all of our rest reflections for today, and our hope is that the wisdom of these writings will serve as an inspiration, that you can use them and help contemplate what rest looks like in your life. It helps you envision sensory rest in a more clear way, and may these words and ideas give you something to move towards as you are trying to sort out where to find the best ways to rest in your routine. So we'll continue our discussion of rest for the next few weeks, few more weeks, and hopefully you'll come back and join us then too. And until next time, peace.