Many of us have fallen into the trap of the glorification of busyness.
We have mentally and emotionally made it mean something validating about ourselves if we can accomplish a huge list of things.
But then we must quickly activate a way to cope with the stress of being over-scheduled and overwhelmed with seasons of busyness.
And because our brain does release dopamine when we think we are in a crisis and overbooked, that little hit energizes us enough to get through the busy time, but we can actually become addicted to that release and over-schedule ourselves unconsciously in order to get our brain to keep producing that.
The problem with this is that we are not created to live in a constant cycle (affecting us emotionally, physically, or mentally)of dopamine being released and cortisol levels rising.
Especially in the hyper-achieving, hyper-productivity culture in America, there is a toxic glorification of “busyness”. It has become a disorder for some. Many, sadly, take such pride in their busyness and then wonder why their bodies suffer with symptoms because they don’t prioritize rest.
This was a challenge when our kids were young and compared themselves to others who were involved in multiple extra-curricular activities and we stood firm and said that’s not the type of family we feel God is calling US to be.
Aside from church, which comes FIRST, because Sunday morning is giving God the first hours of the new week, we always let them pick just one thing at a time to be involved in.
I think if kids grow up over-scheduled, they will become over-scheduled adults who don’t know what to do with downtime.
There is such beauty in allowing recovery time to your body and mind every single day.
Once our kids outgrew nap time, we naturally transitioned to “rest time” each day, especially after returning home from an outside activity, sports, lesson, or playdate.
Our children learned to love having some downtime, even just an hour to recoup after being out and about. Time to pursue quiet, to slow down, to rest or pursue something creative, inside or outside on a blanket, and simply enjoy the unhurriedness of HOME.
Sabbath is not an elimination of fun, but a rhythm that God intended for us to ENJOY.
We’ve always tried to follow an intentional time of Sabbath Rest at the end of the week, starting at sundown Friday.
When our kids were little we looked forward to our Friday night dinner out. It was the one meal we budgeted to eat out so I could rest from the task of cooking and cleaning up.
It was not easy in those early days of living on one income and cutting coupons in order to make it happen, but it was great fun, too, because it felt like a gift and a little celebration.
Now that our kids are grown it morphed naturally into a date night for Chad and me, we still look forward to it and when other things get in the way of this rhythm, which they do some weeks, we both miss it ❤
In this day of jam-packed schedules, we must be intentional about scheduling time for REST and RENEWAL. If I have a commitment on one of the weekend days, I purposely try to keep the other day free so that I can begin the NEW WEEK from a place of CALM and REST, rather than working all week to EARN REST.
If we don’t make space for rest, we will enter the new week with resentments, feeling we are being robbed of time, rather than our tank filled with so much PEACE and REJUVENATION that we are excited about pouring out our gifts with PURPOSE!
And this is why I don’t say no because I am too busy; I say no because I don’t want to become too busy ❤ I hope you enjoy some rest as you head into your weekend space ❤ ~Be Blessed, Jenny xoxo
~JENNY RIEFLIN MINISTRIES~ 