Are you on vacation? If not, picture yourself there. If it helps, picture some vacation advertisements – a family walking on the beach hand in hand. A hammock and cold drink. A mountain, or a city, or whatever means rest to you!
It feels good, doesn’t it? It’s proven: in a study published in Journal of Occupational Medicine. Three days after vacation participants reported fewer physical complaints, a more positive mood, and better sleep.
But vacation can’t solve everything. The study found the big picture of life unchanged from vacation. There was no change to general life-satisfaction. Five weeks after the end of vacation only the extent of physical complaints was still significantly smaller as compared to the pre-vacation level. Everything else was back to normal. http://occmed.oxfordjournals.org/content/50/3/167.full.pdf
So how do we really rest, if hopping on a plane, renting a cottage or vegetating at home just aren’t enough?
It means clearing our heads and hearts, but not by zoning out, bur rather by focusing them on something else….God!
We asked some people: what helps you clear your head on vacation?
Question: What helps you clear your head on vacation? How long does it take to distance yourself from work?
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I used to be really good at resting.
I rock climbed, mountain biked, went running. I went to movies, read books, relaxed at home. Then I got a job! It became a lot harder when I was no longer a student.
Add to that that pressures of family life - marriage and children - and it's even harder to rest at all, much less daily, weekly, yearly and beyond.
So how do you carve that out and protect it?
We asked Jerry, a friend of RTC and a business owner, how he does it.
Be sure to catch his interview on video or audio.
For Jerry, maintaining daily, weekly and less frequent rhythms of rest is a witness to others - they know when your store is closed, and it says something about the values of the family behind the business. It also teaches his family what's important to him and his wife. They are not just about money, there is much more to their life.
Challenge: Find at least four other people in your line of work, and ask them how they handle their need for rest, leisure and restoration. Ask them how that looks on a weekly basis, and throughout the year. Then ask them to keep you accountable.
Just in time for summer's blend of work and rest, Redeem the Commute is starting a new series of daily challenges to help busy people restore life to the commuting lifestyle. This seven week series will look at the meaning and purpose of work, rest, and ancient practices that have helped followers of Jesus to keep the two in perspective and balance for centuries.
