Finding Rest in a Fast Paced World
Finding rest in a fast-paced world can be very difficult.
For a long time I found myself falling into the trend of "busy." That somehow the busier I was, the more successful, and some how "important" I was. Which is all really a lie. In fact, when people would ask me how I was doing my answer was always "busy" or maybe I would change it up and say "super busy." And I know I am not alone in this, because I would notice the people around me had the same answer.
I am not denying the fact that we do live busy lives. Or the fact that we pack in so much into our day and our kids' days that we find it almost impossible to find time to slow down and pause. But the older I am getting, the more I find that slowing my pace down and finding rest is so important. Not just important for me, but for my family and the little people I am raising and watching my every step. When my kids hear me respond to the question "How are you doing?" do I want them to hear that I am always busy? Because really, monkey see monkey do. Not to mention, do I want them thinking that life is suppose to always be stressed out?
Our Pastor at church was preaching on this topic a while back and had a close friend of his confront him on wearing "BUSY" as though it was a badge of honor. Woah right? But it's true. There have been SO many times in the past that I wore "busy" as though it was a crown. In fact, 2014 was the year that crown decided to break and my body said, "You know that badge you're wearing? Yeah - I don't like it." And my immune system crashed. The amount of stress I was placing on my body made it come to a screeching halt.
Recently I was listening to an IGTV podcast from a fellow Beachbody Coach whom I admire and find truly inspiring, Julie Voris. Her whole talk was about this topic. This topic of "BUSY" and the way we have given this word FAR too much power. This word has sucked our lives dry and made it seem that we have very little margin for anything else like relationships, self-care, fitness, etc.
Learning to create margin, create space for rest is so, so, so, important! And the part of Julie's talk that struck an even greater chord was when she hit on TRIBE. Who is in your tribe that can help in those busy moments? I know for me, God has brought an amazing tribe of friends that I can call on in those moments. And even when I don't think I need it, I get what seems like a random text that invites my daughter to a play date or says, "hey! let's go to the lake!" or "let's get some wine and hang!" These are those moments that fill my cup and remind me that LIFE is far to short to be too "busy" for relationships or too busy for the important things.
Finding rest in a fast-paced world can be hard. But we all need rest. So grab a good book, create some space, and go REST.
