What does it mean to rest? Mindful Moment Monday

Hey Mindful Moment Friends, welcome to another beautiful time together. 

Let’s take a moment to pause and take a deep breath.
 

Doesn’t it feel good to have that small moment of space? 

Let’s take one more delicious breath in and relax together for a few minutes. 

Today we’re going to dive into an important topic…. One that is a reoccurring theme in my life and so many around me. 
 

What does it mean to rest?

Although we may have similar concepts of what rest means, the expression and experience might look very different. 

Resting might look like doing nothing, but there is so much more involved. Rest is the process of allowing the body and mind to slow down, stop, relax, or pause. In this moment, we allow the opportunity for clarity, space, breath, and relaxation. It’s showing up for ourselves to be seen, felt, heard. In this, we reenergize, renew, refresh. Doing nothing? How about rest allows us to BE. 

When we are tired, we need rest.
When we are sick, we need rest.
When we are anxious, we need rest.
When we are overwhelmed, we need rest.


When we are well…..we need rest.

Rest is a necessity in Life. We may equate that to taking time off and promptly say, ‘I don’t have time!’. 

Oh my dear loved one, all we have is time! 

And this, coming from someone who often must remind themself of this very concept! 

So let’s take a moment to investigate this further. 

Rest may take many forms and we DO have the time.

Yes, rest can be a week away or a week at home to truly take a vacation or a lengthy amount of ‘down time’. 
Rest can also be a day off from work. This of course means that you now have time to “rest” but how often do we take “off” work only to busy ourselves with other things and “rest” seems to be forgotten. 

How about we simplify things a bit. 

What are some ways we can invite rest into our daily routine? How can we be sure to include rest when we need it most? We always benefit from it, but adding rest on the regular before that ‘little situation’ becomes a nightmare and we lose it, is our aim. We fall into an experience of anger, overwhelm, despair or breakdown when we ignore all the little things that popped up, stuffing them down to deal with “it” later. Before we realize it, we meet our ‘last straw’ and come crashing down. 

Here is where we can invite rest to be our friendly helper. 

Rest your eyes. 
Rest your mind.
Rest your body.
Rest your entire Being

Take a breath. Let’s rest before continuing on. 


 

Rest can mean shutting our eyes for a moment and taking a break from visual stimuli. 
Rest can be changing your perspective to the present scenery and turning to appreciative and gratitude for a moment. 
Rest can be feeling into your breath and noticing your current state of being. 
Rest can mean taking a small walk. 
Rest can be taking 5 minutes to lie down and scan your body.
Rest can be sitting down for a cup of tea.
Rest can be taking a minute to stretch your body.

Rest can be taking a breath. 
Just one breath can rejuvenate, clear energy, create space, ease the mind, allow Life to flow, and bring peace. 
Yes, just one breath.

Let’s take one now.
Breathing in pause and presence.
Breathing out tension and stress.

You are Infinite Energy. But in this earthly body, we need rest. Rest is our best friend. 
Whether it’s a week, a day, several hours, a few minutes, a couple of moments or one breath…. 
Take time to rest.
You are that important. We need you to be your best self and that requires that you take care of YOU!

Let’s take another moment to rest together
Breathing in pause and presence.
Breathing out all that does not serve us in this moment.

As you go about your day and week, may you find the time to rest my dear friend…
You are loved. 
With you this moment
One breath at a time,
Rest and be well, from my heart to yours.