Tag / Rest

by Michael

Already Better

“When I got to your stage of having a whole night’s sleep several times,” Sasha told me, “I did just one thing. I paid absolutely no attention to ‘it’ whatsoever. I pretended it wasn’t there. I decided I’m not going to give up another second of my life to this ridiculous problem. You are still paying too much attention to it just by having this conversation with me. You’re already better.”

Sasha talking to Kate about years of paying attention to not having enough sleep. The quote says so much about sleeping, dreaming, and living after sleeping and dreaming. Read the rest here at the Guardian.

by Michael

My Blog: Spending Yourself

Spend some of your quiet moments with yourself, considering yourself, thinking about you.

Not the job. Not the task. Not the vision. Not the project. Just you.

Your mind, dutiful as it is, will resist it. Your spirit may feel anxious. It’ll feel like a small robbery, this giving of yourself back to yourself and not giving you away to some other thing.

Take it in and feel what it’s like. You need those moments. They will make you and re-make you after you’ve spent you. Those moments are prayerfulness. Those moments are times of contemplation and rest. You need them.

by Michael

My Blog: Rested

I was reading KevinMD, a physician’s newsletter, that comes to my inbox. It’s a regular list of interesting articles discussing the ways physicians and care providers practice.

Among the recent posts was one about sleep deprivation and how necessary a culture shift is for doctors, those in training and those teaching. It made the point that working up to 100-hour weeks is unhealthy. Sleep is a medical necessity.

This is something I’ve wondered about with the healthcare professionals I’ve served as a pastor. Further, they and the blog have me thinking about what’s necessary for me to get rest, what’s necessary to my feeling rested, and what by virtue of my choices exhausts me.

Perhaps good posts like those on KevinMD’s blog will get us to thinking about how to support our care providers and how to live healthy lives.

by Michael

My Blog: While Sleep-Deprived

I was groggy, unrested, and driving the other day. It had been a wearying night that ended an even longer few days.

I attempted to change lanes on my way to work and upon hearing a car honking, I swerved to my original lane. No one was hurt. No accident happened. It was my reaction time that was suspect.

The horn was from another car in an entirely different lane. But I reacted, thinking I veered. Of course, then, I did veer. Afterward, I kept thinking that there are things to refrain from when you’re sleep deprived. There are things to do more slowly when you’re sleep deprived.

When I’m unrested, I’m subject to reacting. When I’m tired, I’m subject to the short terseness that doesn’t help. If I want to help, if I want to be kind, I need to rest so that I’m not flinching and jerking at horns even when they come from people in my face.

by Michael

Quote of the Day

Photo Thanks by Julien Sister

Photo Thanks by Julien Sister

I’m posting quotes as we go through the fuzzy zone of being new parents again in these next days. This quote comes from Gerald May (Simply Sane, 107):

Whatever is being held, one can ease one’s grip. In the midst of any situation, no matter how tense or pressing, it is possible to relax. First the body, just easing the muscles and allowing the limbs to become flexible. Then the mind, in the same way, relaxing. Not avoiding the tension of the moment, it is possible to relax into it. Deeply….Whenever a knot is found, it can be allowed to loosen and perhaps unravel completely. Never by picking at the knot itself, but rather by easing the tension upon it.