The Rest Revolution

What if we prioritized being and connecting, over doing and achieving?

Hi beautiful being,

Are you game for a little thought experiment? Of course you are, you’re amazing! Let’s say that all the hours of our lives fit within two categories: Work and Rest.

Your “work”, in this regard, includes jobs, parenting, adulting, self-improvement, exercising, therapy, cooking, cleaning, laundry, other chores, repairs, improvement projects, gardening, and so on. One could say, in your work, the emphasis is on productivity. It’s doing centric.

On the other hand, your “rest” is comprised of sleeping, having people over for dinner, talking to a friend, going on a date, playing a game with others, napping, going for a walk, enjoying nature, meditating, praying, going to a get together, and the like. In your rest, the focus is on connectivity. It’s being centric.

(From Inspiring Quotes)

Now friend, you know how priorities make a world of difference in our lives? After all: Where your focus goes, your energy flows.

This makes me wonder: Between work and rest, which do we prioritize? When you and I step back, and take an honest look at our lives: Do we place greater value on our doings, or our being? Do we measure our worth by our accomplishments and achievements, or simply by who we are with no doings or titles attached?

While I’d venture to guess, we’re all a bit of both. I also side with Cindy S. Lee’s conclusion in Our Unforming: De-Westernizing Spiritual Formation. She asserts that in the Western World, we prioritize work over rest. Our periods of rest serve our times to work, instead of vice-versa. The problem with this dynamic is:

Our priorities drive our lives, and when we let work take the “wheel”, it’s like handing the keys to a drunk person to take us home from a party. Although, more often than not, things will go alright; eventually, we’ll end up “crashing”, or worse.

The thing is, whatever we center our lives on, ends up defining us. Thus, to the degree our lives revolve around “work”—we’re placing our identity and worth in how our kids turn out, the things we get done, the amount of money we earn, what our boss thinks of us, the hours we put in, and so on. In other words:

A work-centric life is characterized by placing our value in the “hands” of people, and things, outside of ourselves. Whether it’s the approval of others, wealth, titles, status symbols, and/or possessions. Recognizing this is a wide-spread and quite normal predicament—we are social creature after all—Lee invites us to re-center ourselves:

“We need a rhythm that centers around rest—a radical practice that counteracts the unhealthy rhythms of our work by freeing us from performances, constant production, and proving ourselves to others. Without this daily and weekly rhythm of letting go, our rest is limited and temporary. Through rest, we unform the economic values of competition, scarcity, abuse, and greed.” (p. 93)

When I first read this passage, I’m pretty sure I heard a choir of angels break into an epically choreographed song and dance routine. Potential joking aside, the reason this resonated so deeply with me is because, it gets at the heart of how you and I can feel fully, freely, and fabulously alive—pretty much all the time!

In our normal, work centered lives, we find our worth outside of ourselves. People and things external to us, end up defining us. The problem with this is that opinions change, fortunes fade, health wanes, and so on. Having an extrinsic identity like this (a fancy way of saying outside of you), is like building your house on the sand.

Conversely, though, a rest centered life’s identity is intrinsic (i.e. within you), and thus unshakeable. Now friend, if you’re thinking: Have you heard my inner-critic? Do you know the fears, worries, and uncertainties inside of me? I hear you. We all have them. And, the more we focus on rest (i.e. being and connecting), the more we get beneath these surface voices. Underneath them, at the center of us, is a Voice that knows the Truth. Whether you name it your True Self, Holy Spirit, Buddha Nature, Christ Consciousness, and/or something else, it says the same thing:

Simply because you exist, you are worthy, belong, and are loved. Always and forever. No matter what.

I invite you to sit with and feel the power of these words. Let them echo in your being …

Simply because you exist, you are worthy, belong, and are loved. Always and forever. No matter what.

That, dear reader, is the power of prioritizing rest. Let’s start a Rest Revolution together!

Are you with me friend? What did this stir up in you? I can’t wait to hear from you in the comments! And please “like” 🤍, and consider sharing/restacking this post if it spoke to you.

Hugs & Love,

Lang (aka “Dr. Love”)Hi beautiful being,