Do you know how to rest? When I was single, I was very guilty of not knowing how to rest. I made sure my calendar was full of activities nearly every day of the week, multiple times a day and I enjoyed always having something to do.
Your body isn’t even designed to keep up with a schedule like this. God let us know this by giving us a sabbath day of rest, and showed us that even God himself had to rest from His work.
The one day where most people decide to rest, Sundays, didn’t even feel like a rest day for me when I was single. Driving to and from church, helping other people out, being involved in ministry activities and so on I was exhausted before going back to work on Monday!
I felt the consequences physically, to the point where there were some days I had to call off work out of pure exhaustion. It was something sleep couldn’t even fix, I literally felt it deep in my bones and just had to lay there for however long to regain my energy. Of course when you’re running around you can’t feel this fatigue, but when you stop for a while you will feel it catching up with you. This is not healthy or beneficial for you.
There is nothing wrong with being busy, but being overly busy and not scheduling genuine rest for yourself can have short and long term effects on your body and mental health.
It can also cause stress which creates a myriad of problems in the body that can be completely avoided by merely resting.
Rest takes no effort on your part, at least it shouldn’t. You basically just need to sit there and do something very relaxing that you enjoy and not overthink anything at that time. For some people this is very difficult, for me it was hard because I always felt like I had to be doing something. Some people never want a second where they feel unproductive. But if you think about it, some of the things that might keep you busy are extremely unproductive because if it’s not actually working towards any of your life goals or God-given purpose, you can almost deem it as a waste of time. Granted, you still need to have fun. I’m all for doing fun and exciting activities, most of my busyness in my single years was geared towards fun stuff but I didn’t always have the right balance with resting.
What are the effects of not resting? Well, the list goes on but I’ll touch on a few things here. This is one that will get everyone’s attention, premature aging. You can tell the type of life a person has had by just looking at them. You can easily tell when some people have had a hard life for whatever the reason or when some people have led an easy life based on how they look. It’s different for everyone but when you see people, you know what I’m talking about. While this is not true for everyone, based on genetics, etc. I wanted to throw this one out there as consideration and caution for you.
I’ve noticed people that don’t prioritize rest on a regular basis sometimes experience physical ailments more often than others. They’ll think something major is wrong with them, run to a bunch of doctors and learn they’re just dealing with the physical effects of stress or overrunning their body.
Schedule rest. What? Yes, if you’re extremely busy, just like you schedule meetings, events, etc. schedule down time on your calendar. It can be a few hours, half a day, an entire day, etc. Help yourself by planning what you will do when you rest. Watch a movie, read a book, sleep, work on your hobby, learn a new hobby, take a bath, etc. I think a reason many women can’t really rest at times is because if they do, they won’t have anything to do. They’ll feel bored, and oftentimes it’s because they don’t have any hobbies. Think about it, outside of work and church, what do you do with your free time when you’re alone?
Self care is a big thing now that a lot of women are creating to nurture themselves and rest. You’ll hear the terms ‘self care Saturdays’ or ‘self care Sundays.’ I tried to regularly implement this concept into my life, but self care day just felt like more work to me. I was doing pedicures, hair, facials, etc. I was exhausted on self care day! What in the world? So I had to readjust and do what works best for me when I was ready to do it. Self care day should not feel like a chore, don’t plan to do a million things at one time because you will not stick to that type schedule, it’s not relaxing, trust me. Now, self care for me is whenever I feel like it.
I advise you to highly take this advice into consideration, because when you get married and have kids and if you’re still working, your schedule can be busier than ever. If you treat yourself well when you’re single, you’ll be in the habit of treating yourself well when you’re married. You’ll not only appreciate this, but your husband and kids will too. Rest positively affects your mood, your health, the way you look, act and treat other people. Take care of yourself ladies!
Finally, meet and marry your husband God's way. Marriage preparation and Godly relationship advice for Christian women. Order the book here: Irresistible: The Ultimate Guide to Marriage Preparation.
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