Working From a Place of Rest
Something I have been learning lately is how to work from a place of rest instead of toward a place of rest. More often than not, I feel like I have to “do all the things” in order to have the space needed to rest. That means the kitchen needs to be cleaned up, dishes done, bathrooms cleaned, laundry washed and folded, the house dusted and swept, and food prepared for the work week. Only once everything is done, do I feel like I’ve finally earned the time to rest and relax.
However, the flip-side to that coin is that if I expend all my energy constantly working away on my to-do list, I am either too exhausted to do anything else or I don’t have the time to do relaxing things because I’m too busy doing all of the chores instead.
But what if we were to shift our perspective and work from a place of rest instead? What would it look like if I took the time to rest and relax while balancing the responsibilities of daily life? How much more would I actually get accomplished if I worked out of that place of rest?
I had a very practical application of this last weekend. I had great plans to get the house deep-cleaned, write several blog articles, go birthday shopping for one of my sisters, and have meals prepared for the work week. Did all of that get accomplished? Not by a long shot.
We had a couple of late nights going into the weekend, which meant that I slept in in the mornings. When I did get up, I took the time to just sit on the couch with my husband while we had our morning coffee and I snuggled our kitties. I was still super tired, so I even laid down to attempt a nap. I went for a walk and then read a book while eating a late lunch. Just as my body needs nourishment, I am realizing that I need to make the time to also feed my spirit and soul. The high hopes I had of getting the house cleaned, blog articles written, and grocery shopping done just weren’t going to happen that afternoon. I was simply too tired. I had to remind myself that life is not always about everything I get accomplished on the to-do list, but also about just enjoying the moment and being aware that my body needed rest. I had to be grateful for the things I did get done, such as updating finances and getting my scrubs washed and ironed for work.
Instead of trying to battle my way through the long list of things I wanted to get accomplished while feeling exhausted, I had to realize that I would actually be able to get more done in a shorter amount of time if I approached my to-do list from a place of rest. By approaching my goals and responsibilities from a place of rest, I am able to feel less stressed when doing them, have more inspiration, and am able to enjoy the process instead of feeling overwhelmed by everything that I want to get done.
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