Stressed? Three Secrets to Resting Well
by Learning to rest well is essential to enduring and excelling in life. Inspite of the obvious and natural benefits of resting, few people actually know how to do it. Do you?
Learning to rest well is essential to enduring and excelling in life. If you do not plan time to separate yourself from the ever-increasing activities of life, then you will soon find yourself lagging behind. Soon everything that you do and think about will mount into a stress of frenzy and quickly bring you to the brink of breakdown.
Every day marriages, jobs, dreams and relationships of all kinds are subjected to the pain, pressure and problems that stem from stressed-out people. Many times stress is not handled properly and people are forced to suffer loss of many kinds.
Our society is fast-paced and bustling. We go from one activity to the next with little room for error or reflection. Not only does this furious pace wear on our physical bodies, but it also prevents our soul from much needed retreat.
How can this be changed? Simple. Learn the secrets of resting well. If you are too busy to rest, then you are too busy! Most people don’t understand what it really means to rest. Resting well, means that you will cease from activity long enough to quiet the busyness around your life. If your vacation is full of fun activities then you’re not resting, you’re just doing different activities than usual. A true rest will allow you time to align yourself to your personal and family goals, set new goals and celebrate the ones you have achieved.
If you are ready to give it a try then use these 3 secrets to start your life in a more balanced direction:
- Get secluded from your normal environment and other people. At least once a year you should take 2-3 days and get away to a “cabin in the woods” or something of appropriate equivalence. You should be alone and away from technology, TV and all other distractions and reminders of the busyness of your life.
- Plan monthly times into your schedule when you can take a short (half-day) getaway to a nature preserve or a quiet spot that helps you relax. When you take regular times away from the chaos of complex schedules, it gives you time to focus on what really matters and allows you to make key adjustments. A necessary adjustment will be much easier to make the earlier that you notice it.
- Take time each week, even if it is just 60 minutes, to be still. Don’t multi-task or do anything “productive”. Just chill out and reflect on your previous week of life and perhaps some short-term goals for the upcoming week. This weekly practice, when combined with the monthly and annual getaways, will change your life. Don’t believe me? Try it!
If you are married then your spouse should become an active participant in his/her own resting times. You can also do your annual getaway together, this provides for wonderful bonding time.
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Post CommentMountainNana
On January 2, 2009 at 1:59 am
I can relate to this as I was very near a total collapse last winter just about a year ago. Everything was piling up. My daughter was expecting her 6th child, I was quite ill with horrible bronchial cough at weeks of laryngitis that would not go away over four weeks. watching her five children and she was sick most the pregnancy. She lives 3 miles from us and we had a horrible winter we live very mountainous and rural and we got over 10 feet of snow last year. We had a neighbor harassing us and had to go to court and the plow broke. There were other problems too and it all was piling up. I literally was getting by on 2-3 hour sleep a night due to cough and the youngest grandchild waking up at night, we had the grandkids with us most the winter due to the snow and daughter so sick she could not watch all the kids all the time. We would shovel snow and it would pile another foot or two shortly. I was near total burn out. I had to slow down or collapse. Things did get better but I had to say No to some things. I am a lot better than a year ago but the situation left me physically weaker than a year ago and I am still trying to recover and slowly am. I gained over 30 lbs and was already overweight but now have a good routine and losing weight slowly again I still am not back to what I was before the weight gain and from there will still have a lot more to lose but life has become less stressful and starting to get more rest.
dautsey
On January 2, 2009 at 2:03 am
I can relate to this as I was very near a total collapse last winter just about a year ago. Everything was piling up. My daughter was expecting her 6th child, I was quite ill with horrible bronchial cough at weeks of laryngitis that would not go away over four weeks. watching her five children and she was sick most the pregnancy. She lives 3 miles from us and we had a horrible winter we live very mountainous and rural and we got over 10 feet of snow last year. We had a neighbor harassing us and had to go to court and the plow broke. There were other problems too and it all was piling up. I literally was getting by on 2-3 hour sleep a night due to cough and the youngest grandchild waking up at night, we had the grandkids with us most the winter due to the snow and daughter so sick she could not watch all the kids all the time. We would shovel snow and it would pile another foot or two shortly. I was near total burn out. I had to slow down or collapse. Things did get better but I had to say No to some things. I am a lot better than a year ago but the situation left me physically weaker than a year ago and I am still trying to recover and slowly am. I gained over 30 lbs and was already overweight but now have a good routine and losing weight slowly again I still am not back to what I was before the weight gain and from there will still have a lot more to lose but life has become less stressful and starting to get more rest.