There are seasons in your life where everything feels like a hurricane. You’re doing twenty things at once. Your to-do list, thoughts, and emotions are swirling in your mind. The days blur together and you run on auto pilot. There may be great successes during this season. You could get a promotion. Make the honor roll. Start your side business. Socialize and make new friends. It can be good and necessary. You could feel like you’ve “leveled up” in life. But…
There are also seasons of your life when things calm down. You suddenly notice moments of silence. You feel your body again. Thoughts you’d long forgotten come creeping back into your mind one by one. You feel yourself wondering things like, What is it all for? What’s the purpose of this? Am I even happy? Who am I?
It’s in those moments we may want to push past it. God puts us in neutral but we say, screw it, and shift gears back to 150 mph because that’s what we are used to. That’s what we know. And when things are unknown, it scares us.
But being in that slower, calmer season of life right now, I’ve learned to value this time. The slow mornings, slow days, vacant to-do lists, lack of plans. The simple, quite life. It’s actually quite beautiful. It was my inclination during certain moments to forcefully thrust plans back into my days to make myself feel more productive or worthy. But when that internal battle came, I made a choice to surrender back to the quiet life. Not every time – but most times. In return, I’ve felt a peace that I never planned or expected for myself this year.
We need to rest. We need to see what we’re feeling and thinking. We need time to reflect on who we are now and rejoice at how far we’ve come. We need to learn how to feel peace in “awkward” quietness and in-betweens. I think this all relates to the idea of mindfulness and being present. It really does help.
As you slow down, your thoughts and feelings slow down. We gain greater clarity and common sense. We learn to appreciate parts of ourselves we negated before. We also take time to stop focusing so much on ourselves and instead focus on helping others. When you’re filled, you operate from the overflow. That’s always so much better than squeezing every bit of yourself when you’re at a lack.
I want to stop praising burnout. I want to stop putting my value in how much I am doing. I want to feel freedom again, no matter my circumstance. Sometimes you need to empty yourself from all the noise and be a blank slate again. It’s a scary place to be but it’s also the most exciting place to be. There’s so much more room for life to happen now and for God to use you for good works.
So, the next time you get the chance to have a free evening, weekend, or week – take it! You don’t have to fill the entire day with things. Slow down and take it hour by hour. Move deliberately slow. And see where the day takes you! Give yourself permission to be just the bare bones of who you are. It may be the exact thing you need!
Hopeful Song blog 