By Joni BoydWednesday 27 Dec 2023Health and WellbeingReading Time: 3 minutes
It’s that time of year, when many of us have the opportunity to rest and have some fun. For others, work and life commitments continue through the silly season.
Whether you’re taking it easy this month or continuing on with life as usual, it’s important that we all rest and refresh, in whichever way we can.
We’ve put together a collection of our favourite resources on rest, to give us all the opportunity to take a moment to rest and recharge purposefully.
Rejecting Busy, Living in Rhythm
As a culture we tend to glorify busyness, productivity, expansion and increase, no matter the cost.
We celebrate the go-getters, the super-achievers, who are always hustling, bustling, kicking goals, making money and juggling a million hats at once. They run on coffee and never even seem to sleep. Ambition is what gets them up in the morning and adrenaline is what keeps them up at night.
Unfortunately, we rarely mention the high price of running on all cylinders 24/7 and the very real impact of living a life with no margin, no leeway and no rest.
We ignore the effect it has on our health (both physically and mentally) and the toll it takes on those closest to us.
But what kind of life is achieving outward results at the cost of ending up completely spent? Continue reading here.
Carve Out Time for Solitude Without Excuse, Says John Mark Comer
Can you imagine a life without ‘hurry’? Oftentimes the schedule of our lives is dictated by where we have to be next, what’s coming up at work, and the “go, go, go” of family, fun and social commitments.
In the COVID-19 crisis we’ve seen the pendulum swing between extreme stress for some workers and their households, and an extreme slow, where the activity of life has reduced the pace of your own two feet and the boundaries of your home.
Before the pandemic began, writer, pastor and father John Mark Comer wrote, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry — a guidebook on how to stay emotionally healthy and spiritually alive in the chaos of the modern world.
Sharing from his experiences as a burned-out, former mega-church pastor, John Mark’s reflections on Jesus’ approach to solitude and communing with God in the quiet place have become quite timely with many of us forced into an all-of-life ‘stop’. Continue reading here.
Are You Doing Too Much On Your Holidays? One Psychologist Says ‘Yes’
Holidays that are packed with a lot of adventure are not giving us the rest we need, a psychologist has said.
Valerie Ling, a clinical psychologist with a special interest in the prevention and treatment of burnout, believes people don’t know how to take a holiday anymore.
“I think we’ve associated holidays with these expensive grand events where you have to travel and you have to go away and you have to have something exciting,” she told Hope 103.2.
“And now it’s got to be highly publishable to Instagram and Facebook, so I think the art and the soul of taking a holiday has been lost along the way. For a lot of us, it’s just one more thing to do, it’s another job to take a holiday.” Continue reading here.
“Go at the Speed of Joy,” He Said. But Could I?
For the past few months, I’ve been doing an experiment.
It goes back to an experience I had late last year.
Sitting in a hotel room planning the year ahead, six words dropped into my mind as if from heaven: Go at the speed of joy.
I’ve been trying to put them into practice ever since. Continue reading here.
Inspire by Hope 103.2
Take a moment to rest and listen to some inspiring tunes with Inspire.
Hear favourite artists like Chris Tomlin, Jesus Culture, Hillsong Worship, NeedToBreathe, Darlene Zschech and many more as well as teaching from Focus on the Family, Leading the Way, John Dickson, Simon Manchester and others. Listen now.
Feature image: Photo by Unsplash