Ever felt the paradox of craving rest yet finding it elusive? Join me, Sally Burlington, as we wrap up our series on rest with a poignant realization: true rest isn't a passive state but an intentional act, often requiring the courage to turn down invites and prioritize our well-being. This episode is a deep dive into the nuanced understanding that each of us has unique rest requirements across the social, spiritual, and emotional spectrums. I'll share insights on how distinguishing these needs can shield us from burnout and cultivate a life replete with joy and gratitude. ,
As we conclude our restful journey, we open our hearts to the spontaneous nature of joy. It's an elusive guest that doesn't RSVP but arrives just when we need it most. We draw inspiration from Donna Ashworth’s "Wild Hope" to underscore that joy often arrives unannounced, in the midst of our perfectly imperfect lives.
Ever felt the paradox of craving rest yet finding it elusive? Join me, Sally Burlington, as we wrap up our series on rest with a poignant realization: true rest isn't a passive state but an intentional act, often requiring the courage to turn down invites and prioritize our well-being. This episode is a deep dive into the nuanced understanding that each of us has unique rest requirements across the social, spiritual, and emotional spectrums. I'll share insights on how distinguishing these needs can shield us from burnout and cultivate a life replete with joy and gratitude. ,
As we conclude our restful journey, we open our hearts to the spontaneous nature of joy. It's an elusive guest that doesn't RSVP but arrives just when we need it most. We draw inspiration from Donna Ashworth’s "Wild Hope" to underscore that joy often arrives unannounced, in the midst of our perfectly imperfect lives.
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Speaker 1:
Welcome back to the Create Harmony podcast. So you've arrived, you've found us, and here is what is going to happen next. By getting engaged here, you will hear new ideas on how to get your life more refreshed, how to refresh things in your life, how to raise your well-being and how to turn your attention, refocus your attention-being, and how to turn your attention, refocus your attention back on peace and joy. And who doesn't need more of that? So I am Sally Burlington, I'm your host, and this is episode 69. So over the past few weeks, we have been taking a long, hard look at the concept of rest, and maybe you're getting tired of talking about rest. You see what I did there. We have learned together all about the seven different types of rest, or even that there are different types of rest, and we listen to rest reflections, to begin to shift our consciousness in that direction. Now it seems that this discussion was a very thorough examination of that topic, but I have just one more word to share today on the subject, and then I promise. I promise we'll move on to something new. So the gist of what we've said so far is that it is important to analyze what type of rest you are deficient in and work to fill that back up. So, as a refresher, the seven different types of rest we've talked about are physical, mental, social, sensory, creative, emotional and spiritual.
Speaker 1:
Now let me share a few words just about my process, how I do things. When I am using a topic through and flowing it through a series of episodes, I really dwell on that subject matter. I read all kinds of things about it, I focus on it for many days, many weeks. It's woven into my prayer life and sometimes it works its way into my social conversations. I think the term for this is swarming. So over the last few weeks I have been swarming about rest and that process really caused me to realize a few things, and these things are like when it comes to effective resting in my own life. I realized a few things after swarming around the topic. First of all, I need to acknowledge that rest is going to take effort. In addition, it's not going to always be easy for me or readily accepted by everyone around me that I need certain types of rest, so let me say a little bit more about that.
Speaker 1:
Sometimes, in order to make space in my life for rest, I'm going to have to say no to some things that I really, really want to do. For example, if I need social rest, I'm going to have to give up making fun memories with friends until I get filled back up. Or I may have to say no to really good things, to things that are special and great, like helping people. If I need spiritual rest, I'm going to have to pass up opportunities to serve others, like volunteering to support ministries at my church. If I need spiritual rest, I'm going to have to pass up opportunities to serve others, like maybe volunteering to support the ministries at my church. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be about service. We should embrace opportunities to help others. But when I'm approaching burnout, I have to give myself the grace to pass on those service opportunities until I rest and restore service opportunities until I rest and restore.
Speaker 1:
And if I need emotional rest, I might have to say no to a loved one. That is going to be disappointed, or they might get mad or they might get upset, and saying no like that sometimes is really hard. We all want to have positive and peaceful relationships with everyone around us, so when it comes time for me to draw a boundary that will upset a loved one, it can be challenging the thing about setting boundaries is that we don't get to control what other people's reactions to them are. So it may be the best thing for me, but misunderstood by someone I'm close to. But without those boundaries I'll never be able to thrive.
Speaker 1:
The other thought I had when considering all these aspects of rest is that burnout for you is not the same as burnout for me, and what is restful for you is not the same as what is restful for me. Some people might need a long walk to get more rested. I might need a hot bath, and my husband is a person who has a ton of energy. He works really, really hard, he likes to get things done, he's always planning the next activity and he rarely gets tired. He is extremely productivity minded, and that works really, really well for him. Now I am a completely different being. I work from home and I enjoy lots of quiet reflection time. My favorite rhythm is when I have open space on my calendar, and what I mean to say about that is I'm perfectly content sitting on the porch watching birds and, as a bonus, if I allow myself enough mental and creative rest, I am capable of discerning wise insights and deep thoughts. So all that to say. Burnout for me comes easily if I engage in the highly stimulating world and I get more tired more quickly when we travel and things like that. Burnout for my husband has a very different threshold. He can juggle lots of noise. He can juggle issues. He's great at that and having that awareness is critical.
Speaker 1:
Allowing yourself to rest in certain ways, even if it's countercultural, is important and, as I've said before, rest should be more than a nice to have. It's not a reward for going above and beyond. It's an essential part of a wholehearted life. To take this one step further, I will add that it will be less possible to find joy if you don't rest well. Joy comes from balancing your needs well and grounding yourself in gratitude. So it's time now for us to shift our attention to our last rest reflection time.
Speaker 1:
I'll share one final rest reflection here, and then next week we will be on to another topic. This rest reflection is by Donna Ashworth. We've used her in previous rest reflections and it's from her book Wild Hope. The name of it is Joy Chose you, and it goes like this Joy does not arrive with a fanfare, on a red carpet strewn with flowers of a perfect life.
Speaker 1:
Joy sneaks in as you pour a cup of coffee, watching the sun hit your favorite tree, just right, and you usher Joy away because you are not ready for her. Your house is not as it should be for such a distinguished guest House, is not as it should be for such a distinguished guest. But joy, you see, cares nothing for your messy home or your bank balance or your waistline. Joy is supposed to slither through the cracks of your imperfect life. That's how joy works. You cannot truly invite her. You can only be ready when she appears and hug her with meaning, because in this very moment joy chose you. Thanks so much for sticking with me through this long and thorough swarming of rest. Hopefully you've gathered some good insights for your own life and I hope that you will use those insights to become more well-rested and refreshed people. And we hope you'll come back next week as we move on to a new subject matter. But you can't wait to find out what that is. You'll have to come back to see, and until next time, peace.