One assignment after the next, one day after another, little time to rest. Resting is a concept that I feel is something hard to grasp in our society, especially as college students or working individuals. We have things that NEED to get done by a certain point and so we work and work and work until each task is completed. So what happens when do actually “rest?"
When we take a break, a personal day, and don’t work, you cannot deny, there is an inevitable pang of guilt. This guilt eats away at us, consuming our minds with thought of work fueling our anxiety. This only turns our break into a time for worrying about work. We do this all the time. Think about how many times, even is a single day, you’ve tried to procrastinate by watching Netflix or scrolling through social media, all the while the project you should be doing in looming in the back of your brain. Then when you go t do it you feel stressed. Its because you haven’t really ever rested fully. So why do we do it?
We are fulfilled by the idea that we need to be doing something, all the time. Whether it be watching TV, or keeping up with what is going on with those around us online. We don’t give ourselves time to shut out outside influences. That’s what rest truly is and what it should be, at least what I feel we all need. Rest is being at peace within your own body and mind and soul. Rest is just being without worrying or thinking about what you HAVE to do.
I went on a retreat with the Body Christian Fellowship to Pine Springs Camp. In the middle of PA cornfields, about twenty-three of us stayed in a little house on the campground. We had fires each night with s'mores, laid in hammocks, walked through the woods, played like little kids, attempted to watch the sun rise and worshiped God. It ended up being a beautiful weekend for so many reasons, the weather, the people, and mainly the sense of peace that overcame me. I had the ability to connect to my inner-self without listening to the noise of the city or the noises that fill my head. WE put our phones in a bucket so that we weren’t even tempted to look at them, and you know what? Not knowing what time it was, and not knowing that so and so liked a picture on Instagram allowed us all to be present in the moment.
Here is what rest does: it puts you in the here and now. When you are able to be in the moment you don’t have to worry about what’s next. Imagine having even just one day a week of this or even just carving out a few hours just to be, really changes the way you look at work as well. When you set aside a specific time that you know you aren’t going to do work, makes you more motivated to get your work done. It also makes your work more meaningful because when you take a break you are able to appreciate it, and see it in a new light.
Rest is not just sleeping. It isn’t just sitting on your phone, its removing yourself from the chaos, that surrounds us on a daily basis. Rest restores your mind and your heart and it might just change the way you work. Try it. I dare you.
