the importance of rest

This past weekend I went to Virginia with a couple of my friends for a weekend away from the craziness of the city. It was SO INSANELY NEEDED and I hadn't even realized that I needed a time of rest until I was finally given the time to slow down.

We took a train from DC to Virginia, which is now hands down my favorite way to travel because IT FELT LIKE I WAS IN NARNIA and then we got off in the cutest small town that felt straight out of hallmark movie!!

It was a weekend with no cell service and spotty WiFi in the Shenandoah mountains surrounded by my best friends. We hiked, ate homemade ice cream and amazing food that wasn't from the dining hall for once haha and had late night talks by the fire. I got to read my book and let my mind rest from the instant gratification and unending scrolling that Instagram provides. We prayed together and grew deeper in friendship through the rest the weekend provided. And yet, it wasn't like we had the deepest talks ever, revealing our life struggles at 2am. To be completely honest, we didn't really have that many deep talks late at night because we all fell asleep haha. BUT, it was through the rest that the weekend provided where our friendship was strengthened the most.

Everyone needs time to step back from the pressures and anxieties that the world is filled with to just breathe. Whether that's through a weekend getaway or simply an hour sitting on the couch before breakfast to pray and read a book: times of rest are so crucial to our own well-being and that of our relationships.

So if it's so good for us, what's stopping us from resting?

Maybe it's because we don't know how to rest. We are so used to instant gratification and immediate responses that sitting down and reading a book doesn't sound that appealing to us. Our minds are conditioned it move on or scroll past something once it disinterests us after a minute or two. Most of the time we can't even get through a long instagram caption without getting bored and moving on.

So how do we solve this?

-Set aside intentional time for rest. Write rest into your daily or weekly schedule.

-Commit to reading a book an hour or even just 30 minutes before bed every night. I'm going to be doing a post in the future of my favorite books so stay tuned for that!

-Delete social media for a week. If there is anything that will force you to have more time on your hands to rest, it is deleting all social media for a week.

-Watch the Social Dilemma. This movie discusses the negative impact that social media has on our lives and even has the creators of these various platforms come and share their thoughts on the negativity their creations have on society. Here's the link to it on Netflix! https://www.netflix.com/title/81254224

While these tips are not the end all be all, they are a good starting point for implementing rest into your daily routines. Do you struggle with taking time to rest? Have you tried some of these ideas out? And is so, did they work for you? I'd love to know your thoughts on taking time to rest! Leave them down below in the comments!!