When contemplating the topic for my article this week, I had difficulty tapping into the source of my creativity.  Then I heard the words of one of my business mentors, echoing in my ears… “I want you to rest and take a bubble bath as your assignment this week.”  “Yea, right”, I responded in my thoughts… “Not with what I have to do!”

How often, as women and spiritual leaders do we run out of gas?  A common reaction when we feel overwhelmed with responsibilities is to “gear up”; to do whatever it takes to complete what we have to accomplish.

As we have experienced, what usually happens is the “springs pop out”, the project is done to less than our standards, and we often wind up pulling our hair out!!  We all know there is a better way.  Perhaps simple, yet not easy to follow, if we are entrenched in the automatic, often unconscious patterns that we employ to deal with demands.

Every spiritual tradition of which I am aware is replete with stories around rest and retreat.  The Jews honor the Sabbath, the peoples of the indigenous religions engage in vision quests and other rituals which facilitate their “coming apart” from their day-to-day responsibilities.  Muslims and the sages of the ‘Eastern’ spiritual traditions, too, had their times of retreat.

“Come unto me all you who are weary and of heavy burden, and I will give you rest”…

What an irresistible invitation!!!  Come, weary ones, heavy with the responsibilities of serving a congregation, of ministering to the people who come to you for guidance and healing, of juggling the demands of running a home and nurturing a family, and I will give you rest…

How can we respond to the invitation to rest?

1.    Practicing awareness of our energy levels.  What are your individual warning signals that you may be getting low on ‘fuel’?

2.    Practicing saying ‘no’ more than you say ‘yes’.  So often our ‘yes’ responses to a request are automatic.  Once we regularly employ examining what we have been asked to do in light of what we’ve already committed to, it will become clear that a ‘no’ isn’t a bad word.

3.    Observing our thoughts.  Are they accelerating?  Are they into the future with ‘all that you have to do’?  If so, it’s a good sign that you are already approaching ‘circuit overload’.

4.    Take 10 minutes to sit with a notebook and identify a number of places (a quiet place in your home or yard), people (a trusted friend, your toddler), things (music, art, a pet, inspirational writings) that give you a sense of rest; of being ‘apart’, and commit to engaging with those when you feel yourself getting to that state of ‘overwhelment’.

5.    Identify a support system, flesh it out, and commit to calling on it when you experience your stress levels rising.

6.    Practice being in the present moment… moment to moment.

7.    How about your bed for a good night’s sleep?

This article was written by Ruth Reiner, Interfaith Minister, Spiritual Counselor, Coach and Co-founder of www.IAWSL.com

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Tags: Life Balance, restore, women, Women Spiritual Leaders

This entry was posted on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 9:27 pm and is filed under Ruth's Posts, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.