Mastering Clean Living: Finding Rest

What’s up, blog readers? Good to see you! This series I’m delving into clean living, which means eating healthy and exercising, saying nope to dope (did I really just say that?), and being an honest person. However, I think it’s more than that. Much more. So, I’m taking a deep look and sharing what I find (I’m big on sharing and talking), and last week we looked at life congruence. This week we’re moving on to one of the biggest, and I mean the BIGGEST, components of clean living. Rest.

Merriam-Webster defines rest as “freedom from activity or labor.” Freedom. (If I wrote it myself, I couldn’t have made that definition fit better with this blog post.) Additionally, there are some lessons God has so thoroughly taught me that I can’t help but be an expert.

Rest is required for your highest level of productivity. Now, in this day and age, we think go-go-go and more-more-more are better with regard to work and our to-do lists. In contrast, God frequently turns the story backward from the one society tells, and He’s usually right… pretty much all the time.

What makes me an expert?

Specifically, I’ve spent years of my life athletically training for triathlons and running races. Endurance events. The 100-miler was even multiple days. I literally killed myself trying to fit everything in, sometimes leaving my house with 3-4 bags and two packed meals. I even cleaned up once in a Shell gas station bathroom after a bike ride before heading to a wedding shower.

AND, it nearly broke me. I would go and go and work and work until I ended up sobbing on a friend’s living room floor in the middle of small group. I had to scale back to survive.  So, God worked on me over time to learn to pare down my schedule.

Do you know that I trained LESS number of days per week for the 100-miler than I did for my first marathon?

Why? Because I had a coach for the 100-miler who knew the importance of rest for my forward progress. Without adequate rest, my muscles wouldn’t grow and change into what I needed them to be to get me through 100 miles.

Life is the same.

Somehow, when we get stressed and overworked, we tend to try to work MORE to get ahead. (Spoiler alert!) Here’s the thing: you never get ahead. The items on the to-do list are never done. Life never stops. So, we need to take care of ourselves despite the chaos. No one comes to the end of their life and wishes they had worked more.

How to add more rest? (These are going to hurt.)

1. Turn off the electronics and get to sleep.

Netflix will be there in the morning, and everyone hated the Game of Thrones ending anyway. Pick a bedtime where you can get 7-8 hours of sleep and set an alarm on your phone. When it goes off, go to bed. Hey, you’re able to make it to work every day on time, so you can make it to bed every day at the right time, too.

You have to commit to saying, “no” to distractions. Many things will vie for your time in the evenings. Trust me when I tell you that getting enough sleep will improve your productivity. I know because when I stay up that extra two hours at night, the next day I drag and get less done on my to-do list than I would have with a good night’s rest. It all adds up.

2. Add a complete rest day.

Even God rested on the seventh day, but we think we can just keep going. Have you ever had a day with good intentions where you accomplished none of the things on your to-do list and instead plopped down on the couch? You know why? Because you need freedom from activity and labor. You need to veg! We all do!

Therefore, I added a Sabbath day, which is one day a week full of restful things. Cutting out a whole day of work/ exercising/ writing was difficult at first because I kept thinking about everything I had to do. But, and this is a big BUT, my productivity on my other six days dramatically increased. I kept a nice home, worked full time, trained for a 100-mile running race, and finished a book. And, not because I’m superhuman but because I allowed myself the freedom to rest.

3. Set priorities.

Part of the reason we don’t rest is that we don’t prioritize. Instead of doing what is the most important thing on our to-do list, we do the easiest thing so we can “cross it off the list.” Take on what has the most immediate deadline first, even if it’s the biggest thing on your list. Get done what absolutely needs to get done (even if it’s a conversation with your significant other… especially if it’s a conversation with your significant other). Otherwise, by 10 pm at night, you’ll realize the thing you need for your 8 am meeting still isn’t done, and you’re back in the hamster wheel.

4. Take time off every quarter just for you.

I recently implemented this because I’ve turned into an absolute bear lately (Crabby McCrab). My job is stressful and that junk builds up. Plus, I’m ragged with working extra hours. I realized that I do better if I can take a couple of weekend solo trips away to reset and recharge throughout the year. I don’t know what that looks like for you, but get away for a hike, for a spa day, or a festival to let your soul bounce back a bit.

Clean living includes rest. I feel like I preach this all of the time because I watch those around me run themselves into the ground and then wonder why they don’t have the life they want. No one lives their best life exhausted.

Speaking of rest, I’m spending a week at the beach. I need a rest.

Love, K.