I saw a social media post that got me thinking about how we frame rest. When we have downtime, we often talk about doing nothing or doing very little.
Is it really that we are doing nothing? Or is it that we don’t assign value to what we are doing through a misplaced sense of guilt for wasting time?
I have rarely done nothing, even if that’s my standard answer. Sometimes I napped, sometimes I watched TV, sometimes I gardened, and sometimes I spent time in solitude, just watching the birds in my bird bath. Sometimes, I went for a walk. All of these things are part of what is a very intentional habit of rest in my life.
I spend a great deal of time writing and speaking about the importance of rest. Yet I still fall into the trap of feeling like I am wasting time. Living a life of intentional rest has totally changed my life, and I still feel a strange kind of guilt attached to “doing nothing.”
Rest Revives The Depleted Areas of Our Lives
We need to reframe rest. One of my favourite quotes is by Dr Saundra Dalton-Smith
“The most effective rest occurs when we puposefully revive the parts of our life we regularly deplete.”
Rest is reviving us. It replenishes and refreshes the parts of our lives that we regularly deplete. Depletion occurs in various ways, including parenting, creating, working, leading, teaching, and maintaining relationships with others. We constantly draw on these areas and never refill them. This leaves us heading for burnout at worst, and at best, never functioning at our full capacity in the areas of our lives that serve, love and pour into others. The most critical areas.
Rest is a Guilt Free Gift
Resting is not doing nothing. Rest is replenishing me. It is restoring me. Rest allows me to prepare for the week ahead and function at my best. My time spent reading a book or gardening is rest. It is restorative, and it is a gift from God. My time spent “doing nothing” allows me to refresh. It enables me to love others effectively and walk in everything God has called me to. There is no guilt associated with that. It is an absolute blessing in my life.
Do you struggle with feeling guilty about resting? Share your story in the comments.
Article supplied with thanks to Life FM in Adelaide.
About the author: Lorrene McClymont is a writer and photographer who lives in the beautiful Barossa Valley in South Australia. You can connect with her on Instagram.
Feature image: Canva
