My son looks over my shoulder. I’m looking at my computer, at the recipe we’re hoping to try that night.
“Mom, how can you stand it? You have like thirty tabs open, and it looks like just as many documents!”
“Well…it’s a system,” I say weakly in my defense. I know that my “system” is ridiculous. And I see the computer getting slower and glitchier as I refuse to shut it down in the middle of so many things. But there comes a point when the swirling circle of colors takes so long to resolve that I have no choice. Of course, by then my computer has a hard time stopping. It seems reluctant to let go of any document, spinning and lingering as my patience grows thin–my punishment for keeping the computer going in such a state for so long. Eventually, I get all the documents saved and shut it down. Once on again, it’s back to its old self, quick to connect and willing to toggle between my various tabs without disruption. It’s as if my computer is thanking me for the break. Too bad it has to run up to its limit before I listen to it!
My computer is an apt metaphor for the struggle most of us have to have soul-restoring rhythms built into our days during seasons of intensity that require we move fast.
I tell my clients so often that there is nothing wrong with going fast, unless you never slow down. Moving fast or having seasons of intensity are fine, as long as you know how to downshift so that the intensity isn’t relentless.
I’m on a bit of a bandwagon about this! Generally speaking, people value vacation time or understand how a day off work can be helpful. But people don’t seem to know the value of or know how to create rhythms within their days very effectively. If you don’t know how to feel okay at the end of a day in a season of intensity, then you are in danger of long-term physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual suffering!
My book will give you five essential skills to help you know how to build soul-restoring rhythms into your days. And I want YOU to grow increasingly confident that you have the capacity to move fast and deal with seasons of intensity without burning out or collapsing in a heap when they are over.
Remember, better days lead to better weeks. Better weeks lead to better months. Better months lead to a better life!
One Response
Agreed………we all need healthy rhythms and solid vacations. =)