thInQ: Resting the Art of

Sometimes you have to turn off your mind in order to hear your soul whisper to you. – Arctururus

In 2016 I decided to take up Tai Chi as part of my on-going recovery process. My medical team agreed as it would be a great way to stretch out my muscles and tendons and to improve my balance. I loved it. My body did not. A few weeks into the process I had successfully pinched a tendon in my foot and once again could barely walk.

Eventually it got so bad I had to return to my specialist, who was less than impressed and emphatically stated in no uncertain terms I had to rest. Needless to say, deep within I was completely discouraged and outwardly I threatened to burn my sofa. I just wanted my body to stop reacting and to begin healing. Most importantly I wanted to move.

The truth was I didn’t even know what the word "rest" meant. Besides I thought I was resting.

A few months later I was at a public lecture and our guests had moved from the reception area into the auditorium. I was lagging behind, just to make sure we had everything gathered up and to pause before the next event.  An acquaintance who suffers from an aggressive form of arthritis came over for a “talk”. In her quiet manner she softly said to me,” Lisa with these autoimmune conditions you have to rest.”

After some pouting, which by the way I am quite good at, I got curious and took a look at what resting really meant. 

Resting, I discovered is not about mindlessly watching television, scrolling through your social media news feeds, meditating, listening to music, painting, napping, travelling, drinking, or even going for a walk. Resting is in fact shutting off.

Many of our modern-day guru’s like Eckhart Tolle speak about it and our post modern-day saints discussed it as well, we are, however, not so good at listening. Why you may ask? Because “resting” doesn’t fit into the category of being “productive” and I have since learned being “productive” does not fit into the category of being “creative” nor does it fit into "generating money", so we believe. And, thus a cycle begins until something happens where you are forced into this place called "rest".

Let me break it down. Resting is not listening, seeing, thinking, feeling, smelling, singing, or breathing. It is nothing, it is literally doing nothing. It is just stopping for a few seconds and building from there. Try it for 10 seconds. Do nothing. I guarantee you your phone will start pinging and the kids will start fighting.

Think about this another way. We shut off our computers, phones, gaming equipment, and cars for them to reboot, to rest, re-calibrate, upgrade, the works. But we don’t take one minute throughout the day to do the same.

It took me quite awhile and last summer I was able to get into a state of simple stillness. Some of the people in my life panicked thinking I was in a state of depression. I was not I was simply still. And, I kind of liked it. 

In my last series of posts, I shared with your White Crystal Wind by Steven Libby. The purpose in sharing Steven's work was for you to take the opportunity to unwind and rest. We are creators and an intricate part of the creation process is to turn everything off to rest so you can begin to hear the whispers of your own soul. 

- thInQ