Ever feel like you're running on empty, creatively speaking, or that your soul is parched for something deeper? Join me, Sally Burlington, as I navigate the less charted terrains of creative and spiritual rest. It's a misconception that only painters and poets need to recharge their creative batteries; we all do, from tackling daily dilemmas to orchestrating life's logistics. In this episode, we uncover how problem-solving and organization sap our creativity and why nourishing the soul is not a mere indulgence but a cornerstone for a fulfilled life. Guided by the profound musings of Morgan Harper Nichols, Stephen Charleston, and Richard Rohr, we're offered a compass to wander through the landscapes within ourselves, to heal, and to find serenity in stillness.
This conversation extends beyond the ordinary, as we wrap up our series on the myriad forms of rest that are essential for our well-being. But before we rest our case, this episode gives you a glimpse into how these practices intertwine, influencing each other and our overall health. As we prepare to bid adieu to this series, my hope is that you emerge not just informed but transformed, equipped with practical ways to welcome rejuvenation and harmony into every day. So take a moment for yourself, and let this episode be the guide to rediscovering the joy in your journey.
Ever feel like you're running on empty, creatively speaking, or that your soul is parched for something deeper? Join me, Sally Burlington, as I navigate the less charted terrains of creative and spiritual rest. It's a misconception that only painters and poets need to recharge their creative batteries; we all do, from tackling daily dilemmas to orchestrating life's logistics. In this episode, we uncover how problem-solving and organization sap our creativity and why nourishing the soul is not a mere indulgence but a cornerstone for a fulfilled life. Guided by the profound musings of Morgan Harper Nichols, Stephen Charleston, and Richard Rohr, we're offered a compass to wander through the landscapes within ourselves, to heal, and to find serenity in stillness.
This conversation extends beyond the ordinary, as we wrap up our series on the myriad forms of rest that are essential for our well-being. But before we rest our case, this episode gives you a glimpse into how these practices intertwine, influencing each other and our overall health. As we prepare to bid adieu to this series, my hope is that you emerge not just informed but transformed, equipped with practical ways to welcome rejuvenation and harmony into every day. So take a moment for yourself, and let this episode be the guide to rediscovering the joy in your journey.
To learn more, go to mycreateharmony.com
Speaker 1:
Welcome back to the Create Harmony podcast. So if you are new here, we would love to welcome you into the conversation. What you can expect is a place where we raise your well-being, we refresh your life and we refocus you on peace and joy. Now, how do we do that, you ask? Well, our topics help connect you with everyday joys, things that are around you each day that maybe you've forgotten to notice, and we make it a point to ground our content and gratitude as we move along. So I am Sally Burlington, I'm your host and this is Episode 67.
Speaker 1:
So for the past few weeks we have been talking about rest. We have acknowledged that there are seven types of rest, as indicated by Dr Sandra Dalton-Smith. Looking at these forms of rest individually has helped us to narrow down what places in each of our lives that where we're deficient, like. Looking at each type of rest has helped us identify am I deficient in that type or am I doing okay? And trying to discern what things we need to add in order to avoid burnout. So we will continue the conversation right here and, to help remind you, I will give you the seven types of rest again. So they are physical, mental, emotional, social, sensory, creative and spiritual. So we've already been through mental, emotional, social and sensory rest. We've been through four of the seven types. So if you need to learn more about those, you can go back and listen to the previous episodes. And so for today, we're going to take a look at two types. We're going to identify how to creatively rest and how to spiritually rest.
Speaker 1:
So first of all, let's go to creative rest. So the definition of creative rest is taking a break from problem solving and producing. Because some of you probably thought when I said creative rest, you probably thought to yourselves I don't need to worry about that because I'm not a crafty or creative person, I'm not an artist, I don't need. This is not an area where I'm going to need to rest. You probably don't consider yourself a creative person. Now. Maybe you don't engage in a creative hobby or have a job where you see yourself as a creator. But we all need creative rest Because we all use our creative skills. You might use yours. The way that you might find you use your creative skills is by thinking through complex carpool schedules for your children. Or maybe you need to sort out a complicated management issue, or even really a complicated organizing task. Organization task, like cleaning out the garage or cleaning out the pantry. Those are ways that you are using your creative skills. These are things that are all considered creative for the purposes of our discussion, so that may help you identify an area that you are really becoming weary and you are becoming tired and burnt out, and you didn't even know that that was an area you needed to rest from.
Speaker 1:
So now we're going to look at spiritual rest, and the definition of spiritual rest is the nourishment of the soul that allows us to connect with our higher purpose. For me, this type of rest is finding new ways to connect with God. You may call this by a different name, but anything that helps your soul connect to that which is larger and more powerful than you can be in the category of spiritual rest. Now, these two types of rest can be combined, just as all of the other types can. You can take any of these kinds of rest postures, combine them together If you can find an activity that they overlap and move you toward a more restorative place. So now that we more clearly understand these types of rest and what their purpose is, we're going to shift into the part of our time together that we've been calling rest reflections. This is something we've been doing during this rest series and the reason we're doing the rest reflections is to provide inspiration for you and give you a place to sort of lean into a more restful posture.
Speaker 1:
So our rest reflections for today we're going to hear from Morgan Harper Nichols, from Stephen Charleston and from Richard Rohrer. So we're going to start with Stephen Charleston and if you've been listening along during the whole series, you already know that Mr Charleston is a member of the Choctaw Nation and also he is an Episcopal priest and he has written numerous books. But we're going to draw our reflection from his book that is called Spirit Wheel and it's filled with so many beautiful, beautiful poems. And the one we're going to listen to today is called Come Down Easy and it goes like this Come down easy, dear soul, come down easy into the rest you need. Here is the place prepared for you A quiet spot in the midst of the swirl of life, a still hole where you can be undisturbed and at peace, let your worries drift away like bottom smoke. The world will wait for you, but for now it is on the far side of the hill. Your only task is to be healed of impatient time, unburdened by demanding thought, free of the daily dance of any expectation. This is a timeless place, the healing place for which you have longed. Come down easy and stay as long as you like. Now our next rest reflection is from a Franciscan priest called Richard Rohr, and he's written lots and lots of books. And he has written a book of meditations called yes, and We've used this one in some previous episodes during this series.
Speaker 1:
So this is called contemplation as an alternative mind, and it goes like this the ability to stand back and calmly observe our inner dramas without rushing to judgment is foundational for spiritual steel. It is the primary form of dying to the self that Jesus lived personally and that Buddha taught experimentally. The growing consensus is that, whatever we call it, such calm eagerness seen is invariably characteristic of people at the highest levels of doing and loving in all cultures and religions. They are the ones we call sages or wise women or holy men. They see as the mystics see. Many of us call it the contemplative mind, paul calls it the mind of mind, but have no doubt that it is an alternative consciousness to the ordinary calculating mind. Do not let the word mystic scare you. It simply means one who has moved from mere belief systems or belonging systems to actual inner experience. All spiritual traditions agree that such a movement is possible, desirable and available to everyone. In fact, jesus seemed to say that this is the whole point.
Speaker 1:
Now, today we have an additional reflection from Richard Rohr from the same book. Yes, and we're doing two rest reflections from Richard Rohr. So this one is called Spacious Silence Allows a Spacious God, and it goes like this this is one good thing that silence and waiting have taught me. Our lives are always usable by God. We need not always be effective, but only transparent and vulnerable. Then we are instruments, no matter what we do. Silence is the ability to trust that God is acting and teaching and using us, even before we perform or after our seeming failures. Silence is the necessary space around things that allows them to develop and flourish without our pushing. God takes it from there, and there is not much point in comparing who is better writer, hire lower or supposedly saved. We are all partial images slowly coming into focus, as long as we allow and filter the light and love of God which longs to shine through us as us. And our final rest reflection for today is from our friend, morgan Harper Nichols, and I've used Morgan's gorgeous poetry many times in these offerings. She is also an artist and her books if you have one of her books, the poems that she's written are on the lovely art that she has created. Her words are spread across them. It is truly a treasure. So we are using her book.
Speaker 1:
You Are Only Just Beginning, for today, and hearing what's called the six signs, you are nurturing your creative soul. So here it is. Number one you've become less worried about what others think when you share your ideas. Number two you're seeking new ways of problem solving stemming from your hope for the future. Number three you're discovering new passions that you will talk about for hours. Number four you're noticing your inner critic is not as loud as it used to be. Number five you are falling in love with the process of making things. Number six your curiosity is peaked as to where this journey might lead.
Speaker 1:
So those are our rest reflections for today, and that concludes our conversation about creative and spiritual rest. So this means that we have gone through in our previous episodes and today we've gone through six of the seven forms of rest so far. We have one more type that we're going to discuss and that is physical rest. Now, I deliberately put physical rest at the end of our study, and the reason is, if we're missing any of the other types of rest, physical rest is harder to access. So we needed to learn about all those other types. We needed to tackle what they were and clarify our understanding of them before we tackled the rest of our bodies. So hopefully you found some areas that you understand more clearly now and you think, yes, I can fold that into my life, I can add that to my calendar, some ways to rest differently than just taking it out or sleeping, and we hope you'll come back next week as we conclude this examination of rest. We thank you for listening and hope that our offerings are a blessing to you and until next time.
