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A Lesson on Rest

I love sharing what I learn. When I was in school I would bore my family with talk about slow and fast twitch muscle fibers. And taking continuing education courses often has the same result. That’s probably why I love my job, because I get to share things I’ve learned over the years about health and exercise with my patients. And that’s also one of the main reasons I started this blog, to share what I have and am learning with all of you!

One of the things I’ve been learning about this year is rest. But I’ll admit, I’ve been a slow learner.

I love to-do lists. I love checking things off my to-do list. I love setting goals and making action lists. I actually love getting cleaning and organizing things done around the house. Some of you may think I’m crazy, but I’m just a doer!

Resting is something I’m not good at. And it has led to feelings of burnout and health struggles in the past.

Last week I had a particularly hard week. I felt tired and out of sorts. While there were likely multiple reasons for this, I think it was mainly because I didn’t rest the weekend before. I worked really hard on this blog. I bought groceries. I did projects. But I paid for all that time spent “getting ahead” instead of resting.

So today I came home from church, had lunch, and rested. I took a nap. I was tempted to start on “all the things” first but I reminded myself that if I don’t rest now I won’t have the energy to do the things I need to do this week.

I need to repeat that to myself. If I don’t rest now, I won’t have the energy to do the things I need to do this week.

Things like serve my patients well, love my husband, and take care of my body.

How is your relationship with rest? You probably know.

How can you take time to give yourself the rest you need?

In her book, Sacred Rest, Sandra Dalton-Smith identifies 7 types of rest: physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, sensory, social, and creative. You can take her free personal rest quiz here.

But to get started right away just stop and think about what makes you feel rested. Maybe you wake up from a 1 hour nap feeling energetic, happy, and creative. (That’s what happened to me today.)

Or maybe a nap doesn’t seem to help, but you feel more like yourself after a walk outside. Find one thing (yes, only one) and ask yourself where you could fit it into your schedule today or this week.

I’d love to hear how it goes!

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