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Welcome back to the Create Harmony podcast, and what you'll find here is a place that we refresh your life, we raise your well-being and refocus you on peace and joy.

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We're a place where we ground ourselves in gratitude and we try to notice small, everyday joys of life.

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So I am Sally Burlington, I'm your host and this is Episode 68.

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So for the last few weeks, we've been discussing the concept of rest and how to balance productivity and rest.

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So in the first episode, I said that if productivity and rest were characters and a story, the story would go like this Productivity would play the role of the superhero, it would wear a cape and it would be the best part of the story.

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The hero of every good story about how life is going is productivity.

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We have lots of resources, things that we can use to know how to be more productive.

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We can buy fancy planners, we can use an app, we can get the online calendar and the digital version of this, and so many different things that we can turn to to talk to others about how to be productive.

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We feel very comfortable showing others what we've done to be successful.

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On the other hand, I said that if this was a story, there would be a villain in that story and this villain should be feared.

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That villain is laziness.

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We seem to be concerned that laziness will grab us up if we slow down in any way and it will hold on to us and torture us and do bad things to us.

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If we slow down in any way, we are putting ourselves at risk to this villain.

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Therefore, we don't tell other people when we've slowed down, when we've rested.

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We don't talk about that in our social groups because we don't want anyone to think that we aren't always producing and always doing and making, being productive about all things.

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I also said that rest is sort of an ethereal being.

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It's something that we talk about needing and that we all really think is important, but it's sort of like a ghost that we can recognize, we can see it from afar, but we really don't get that all that close to rest.

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Rest is a nice to have, but it doesn't make it to the top of many to-do lists.

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We treat rest as something like what we get as a reward for our perfect performance.

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Once we've done everything, we've checked up all of our tasks, we can just dig in and have that 15 minutes of rest.

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It's as if most of the mighty of us can continue on without needing any rest at all.

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So here at Create Harmony, we've taken it upon ourselves to thoroughly examine rest.

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We've looked at all of the different types and given it some airtime on how to do it.

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Well, so far, at this point in the discussion, we've discussed six of the seven types of rest.

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So I will remind you that there are seven types of rest.

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We've been talking about them over the last few weeks and they are physical, mental, emotional, social, sensory, creative and spiritual, and we've been going through them over our deep dive into rest.

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And at the end of last week's episode I told you that we deliberately left physical rest until the end.

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So today we're going to talk about physical rest. It's the last of the seven types that we're going to look at, and the reason is that if you've omitted any of the other types, if you've forgotten to rest in any of the other ways, it is going to be more difficult to achieve physical rest.

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So how many of you have tried to go to sleep but you found your mind racing with all of your creative issues, or you couldn't get your mind to shut off because you had not found enough mental rest and you're going through your list and making lists of things that you needed to do, or you found yourself thinking about how to juggle your social commitments.

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You get the idea you can't let your body rest well if all of the other areas of rest haven't been done.

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So we don't really need a definition here of physical rest.

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We all know what that means and I bet all of you now, since you've been listening to this podcast and you understand all the other types of rest.

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You're doing them so much, you're getting them done, you're putting them at the top of your productivity lists and you are super rested now and you're able to sleep through the night.

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Wonderfully, isn't that right? Isn't that where you are?

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Well, maybe that's a goal and maybe you're at least a couple of steps closer to that.

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You know it now, at least, that you need rest in more than one way.

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So, as a part of each of these episodes on rest, what we've been doing as we get closer to the end is include what we call rest reflections, and these are poems, liturgies, excerpts from books, all that type of thing to give us some fuel as we pursue a more restful posture.

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So we've looked to the wisdom of others as we are on this journey, and we're going to shift now into our rest reflections for today.

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So today we're going to hear from Kate Bowler, from Douglas McKelvie and Donna Ashworth.

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So we'll start out with Kate Bowler, who has written several bestselling books and is the host of the popular podcast Everything Happens.

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We are hearing from her book the Lives we Actually have.

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It is a book filled with blessings for our everyday lives.

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So this blessing, the blessing that we're going to talk about today, is called For when you Can't Sleep and it goes like this oh God, again I lie here awake, too tired, too restless for sleep to come.

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How will I ever get through tomorrow?

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Oh God, bring peace to my mind and body and blanket me in the heaviness of slumber.

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Blessed are we still awake in night's loud darkness who say, oh God, help me.

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You know the state that I'm in.

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My mind is a runaway train and my body is captive.

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You know all that troubles me.

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Take hold of me, study the racing of my heart.

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Breathe fresh comfort through the whole of my being, wrap me in the secure knowledge of your love.

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Remind me that tomorrow's worries can wait, because tonight has enough of its own.

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Blessed are we who wait in the silence, who remember that darkness is not dark to you.

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You pray, oh God, receive me, gather me, strengthen me, sustain me and free me to tell you everything.

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Blessed are we who listen in the quiet for you to breathe life into all that is spent and gone, filling my mind and soul and body with hope and the beauty of your peace that passes all understanding gentle as the dawn.

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Welcome one sweet thought.

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Follow it until it grows into genuine gratitude.

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Rest there and now.

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We will hear from Donna Ashworth. So Donna is a poet, and she has written a book filled with the most lovely poetry, and the one we'll hear today is called Before you Sleep, and it goes like this Leave guilt on the floor by your slippers and robe.

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Your worries may nestle there too.

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Let shame and embarrassment slip through the door.

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There's no place for such things here.

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With you, memories of laughter, words aimed to warm fill up any space in your head.

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Remember the smiles of the people you love.

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Let those treasures come with you to bed.

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You did all you could with the day that you had.

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You led with that heart full of love, your toil and your care.

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That's always enough.

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So release that dark load to above.

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Now rest, close your eyes, let your fears melt away, give in to the slumber you crave.

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You are giving your all to this cycle of life.

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Welcome dreams and await a new day Now.

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Our final rest reflection for today is from Douglas McKelvie.

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Now, douglas McKelvie is a liturgist, and he has compiled his wonderful liturgies in a book called Every Moment Holy, and the one we're going to focus on today is called Upon First Waking, and it goes like this I am not the captain of my own destiny, nor even of this new day, and so I renounce a new all-claim to my own life and desires.

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I am only yours, o Lord.

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Lead me by your mercies through these hours that I might spend them well, not in herried pursuit of my own agendas, but rather in good service to you.

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Teach me to shepherd the small duties of this day with great love, tending faithfully those tasks you place within my care, and tending with patience and kindness the needs and hearts of those people you place within my reach.

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Nothing is too hard for you, lord Christ.

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I deposit now all confidence in you that, whatever these waking hours bring, my foundations will not be shaken.

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At day's end, I will lay me down again to sleep, knowing that my best hope is well kept in you.

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In all things, your grace will sustain me.

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Bid me follow and I will follow Amen.

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Now.

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That concludes all of our rest reflections for today.

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And this concludes our thorough examination of rest.

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We've taken a deep dive and a long look at how to be effective resters, so hopefully you all.

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I told in an earlier episode that my youngest daughter used to say she was rusty instead of tired, so hopefully you will all be less rusty now that we've had this long discussion.

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We hope you found it both informative and inspirational and we'll be back next week with some more ways to refresh your life and raise your well-being.