Day 5 – ‘A Day of Inner Rest – What, Why and How?’

This one comes in at a key time for me. Just as it is important that you take care of your fitness, nutrition and rest, it is equally important to care about the matters within yourself. What do I mean by Inner Rest?

Rock with me a moment, this is important!

Whether you are like myself, an individual who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ or believes in another faith/religion/practice, or perhaps nothing at all, it is difficult to neglect the health of the spirit. Whether your focus is on building up a strong hope despite your difficult circumstances or working to love those around you more to be a positive light in their lives, these efforts take energy and focus to grow!

Growth is gradual, no matter where you seek it!

For me, I will openly and gladly share my faith in Jesus Christ and my belief that He died on the cross to save me from the many sins I have committed, as well as those that I will commit. If it wasn’t for the grace of Father God and His love for us, He would have not sacrificed His only son to save us (John 3:16). Now if this doesn’t relate to you, that is completely fine! It is how I’ve come to restore my spirit, seek strength when weary and have a foundation to stand upon when times feel utterly hopeless.

There have been some utterly tough and seemingly hopeless times of late…

The holiday season was extremely tough for my family. My dad was on a positive upwards path in his battle against Prostate Cancer. Back in 2013, he was diagnosed with cancer at a later stage and some of the initial treatment options suggested (like surgery and radiation) were not doable. His prostate had grown to a size larger than his bladder and the doctors were concerned that they may radiate healthy tissue or lose my dad in surgery due to his condition.

A long 4-year battle, ending in a sudden loss…

For those who aren’t up for a tough story right now, I caution you to revisit this post at a later date. This is where it get’s extremely difficult. Not long after hearing positive aspects of my dad regaining his health, I received a call from my mom on an early December morning saying that my dad had a seizure, wasn’t recovering and was given 72 hours to live. About 5 days before, my father was feeling fine and had even sent me a video message following up with me on how he was doing, as we would usually do.

It so turns out that the cancer was spreading at such an extremely violent pace that the red blood cell count was diminishing quickly. With low counts, hemorrhaging started to occur in my father’s brain. They were able to stabilize him, but further seizures took place and eventually the call from my mom came. By the grace of God, I was able to book a plane and be there with my mom later that night (at least a 6-hour journey by plane and car).

I’ll revisit this story at a later time, it’s still too fresh…

Back to my topic at hand, it was a very emotionally and mentally draining time in my life. Business was having its trials, I was feeling especially challenged by my marriage and here I was facing the potential loss of my father. Had I not had a source to tap into and rely on during this time, I have no doubt I would’ve lost it. This was by far the worst holiday season of my life…

Not only has Christ been a solid rock with which to stand on and seek in leading my life, the Lord has put strong people in my life like my mentor – a fellow believer and brother in Christ – to walk with me in this journey called life.

However this may apply, I encourage you to work on your spiritual health too!

The goal is to encourage you to treat your spiritual health with the same precedence you do with fitness, nutrition or other areas of health. Those hard times will come, it isn’t ‘if’ but definitely ‘when’. None of us can escape hard times and those times can be crushing. They can leave us hopeless and in despair. Life without hope will kill any joy you may be experiencing… Lord help you if you don’t have any joy in your life when the hard times come.

I think you get the point, so what’s the takeaway here for Inner Rest?

If you aren’t a believer like myself, I suggest you spend some time researching simple meditation. Inner rest isn’t easy to come by in the loud and notification filled world we live in. It takes as short a time as 10-15 minutes and a pen/pencil and paper. There are two techniques I use to help me in times that may be hard or when I really need to spend time thinking about a challenging task/topic:

• One, spend time clearing your mind thinking of absolutely nothing. If a thought comes to mind, simply write it down on your paper and go back to clearing your mind.
• Two, if you’re working on a particular topic, think only about all that comes to mind. Allowing your mind to either rest completely and/or apply all of your mental faculties to one topic is quiet rewarding. It well help you gain the clarity that you seek. I rushed through this concept so I’ll gladly follow up with more in the future.

I’ll follow up with my story and my faith in later posts…

For those of you who are believers, feel free to drop me a line. I’m glad to partner with those who are seeking a stronger, healthier lifestyle fueled by the Grace of God. We live in a world that seems to get more complex and demanding every day. However, God created all that is creating the complexities and demands we now experience! He is above it all and I’d like to hear how He is showing you favor and grace. Perhaps you may need prayer as well… great, let me know how I may pray for you!