Sunday Story...Rest; Not just for the wicked

Sunday Story…Rest; Not just for the wicked

There is an old saying that goes something like this…”You can rest when you are dead.” For a long time that saying was a mantra of sorts for me. Sometimes it still is.

I believe you should be in action. I believe hoping and wishing are wonderful but without action there is no result. Laying on the couching wishing you were a different shape just won’t get the job done. You can’t win the lottery without buying a ticket. Action gets results.

Often, though, we hide behind action. Rather than planning and moving intentionally we are just moving willy-nilly deluding ourselves that action for action’s sake will give us the results we desire. This sort of action generally results in just creating an energy drain. I am guilty of this quite often.

We do this sort of thing with our jobs and careers quite often. We show up every day. It’s what we are supposed to do. Show up at the designated time, do some stuff and go home at the designated time, take a lunch break, repeat day in and day out, year after year. It is what is expected of us. It is what we “do”. Good on you. But are you really getting anything done? Are living, doing, thinking, and acting with intention and purpose?

It is one thing to set goals. It is quite another to create a plan that will have those goal come to fruition. And yet another to actually take the actions that will have that plan be mobilized. Imagine the General of an army about to invade the enemy country. He just can’t say go and hope everyone and everything falls into the right places. And so he makes a plan after setting the goal---invasion! The plan or campaign has different elements and different factions doing different things. The activity is planned out and deliberate. Nothing is left to chance. If things to go as planned there is an alternative. A plan B and a plan C designed to cover the contingencies that can and will occur. Then he will put the plan into action…deliberately and intentionally.

Our General is meticulous in his planning. And he is just a meticulous in his execution of the plan. And he is willing to shift and transform the execution when the situation calls for a shift. The outcome is still on the horizon but the plan can change. What would happen to your life if your actions had the same meticulous planning and execution as that of our General? What would your job and career look like? How about your relationship? How about your education (yes even if you are no longer attending school you are still being educated --- or not!)?

It is said that if you had 8 hours to cut down a tree you should spend 6 hours sharpening your ax. In other words spending the time creating the right plan is time well spent and might actually result in an easier execution than just rushing in and doing anything. The proper plan, properly executed is much more likely to succeed than a flurry of activity whirling around with little intention or purpose.

All of which brings us to rest and restoration. We need to rest. We need time to re-set the set-points. Rest is an activity. Rest is something we do. Rest allows us to find new ways to execute our plans. Rest isn’t just sleep and it isn’t just laying on the couch flipping the channels on the boob-tube.

Sometimes rest is meditation. Meditation is the activity of sitting and listening to the rocks move, the leaves fall and the raindrops form. It is allowing your breath to find its way through your body and into your emotions. It is a way of connecting with all those things greater and more mysterious than yourself.

Sometimes rest is play. You know the kind of play that happens when we allow ourselves to play freely without expectation of outcome. Without a win or a loss or even a critic to say what is right or wrong. When we watch toddlers at play…this is the sort of play that is rest, the kind of play that restores energy even while expending it. When we see the youngster singing and spinning and just living in the very present moment we see a body in motion that is being restored. It is an amazing transformation.

Sometimes rest is doing the thing that pleases you the very most in the world. Those things that, when you do them, have you completely present in the world. There is no time before and no time after. There is only that moment, that sliver of time where you exist in an exact state of perfection. It may be painting, dancing, writing or reading but there is or has been something in your life that creates rest in action for you.

Rest is being in the moment. Restoration can occur when we are at one with the flow of the universe. This is why we often think of sleep as the only time we can rest and recuperate. In sleep there is only that moment. There is no before sleep or after sleep while we sleep … we just sleep. So go get some rest today and restore your energy so you can execute all your world changing plans tomorrow!

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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