Category: Rest

3 Ways to Develop Your Intuition

September 2, 2024

When it comes to integrating slow living strategies into our lives, I believe that tapping into our intuition is one of the most important processes we can adopt. Becoming attuned to our intuition can enable us to course-correct, gain clarity, make better decisions, reflect on the past, and prepare for the future. Sometimes we intuit for our own benefit, but at times we are also required to intuit on behalf of, or in cooperation with, family members, staff, ministry partners, a business or program, students, clients etc.

Tapping into my intuition has helped me discern my body’s needs and my brain’s logic, differentiate between desires that are selfish or selfless, and recall the wisdom of God’s Word or those who have spoken into my life from a place of wisdom and experience.

Becoming attuned to my intuition has required the following: stillness, silence, and solitude. I cannot intuit well amidst the clamour and chaos of busyness, noise, and the needs and expectations of others. So how do I find stillness, silence, and solitude when the days are full and the nights feel short? Below are 3 methods that have helped me to tap into my intuition amidst the roller coaster of parenting, homeschooling, and running a business.

Time in nature, specifically a walk or wild swim, allows me to breathe deeply, reset my nervous system, observe lessons from nature, escape the noise, get off my device, and hear from God through his creation. This is one of my favourite ways to gain clarity and tap into my intuition.

Early mornings before my family needs me or the rest of the world has a chance to fill my brain via emails, texts, and social media are essential. Spending time in prayer, journaling, and meditation on Scripture as a way of both communing with God and hearing His voice provides me with peace and the opportunity to intuit my next steps or a greater vision.

The pursuit of a creative outlet no matter how insignificant it might feel or how poorly it is attempted, increases my ability to hone my intuition. Whether it’s painting or photography, piano or cooking, setting a beautiful table or pruning a rose bush, any opportunity I have to do something creative helps me become more acquainted with sensing nuance. It’s a training ground for developing my intuitive sense. The more I engage with a creative outlet, the more I become attuned to my intuition, which I can then utilize throughout all aspects of life.

As I become more intuitive, I become better able to understand my purpose, use the gifts God has given me, and endure difficult seasons. Tapping into my intuition has also helped me decide on and hone a number of slow living strategies that have made my life feel less chaotic, more in sync with natural rhythms, and more aligned with my desire to lead a peace-filled life.

For the story on how I lost my connection to my intuition during the pandemic and gained it back during an unexpected season, click HERE.

If you’d like to follow along on my exploration of slow living strategies, you can subscribe to my newsletter for weekly inspiration, travel tips, offers, and opportunities to increase your rest, creativity, and natural rhythms. Join me on the journey HERE.

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Digital Habits to Reduce Decision Fatigue

August 27, 2024

Are you up to your eyeballs in decisions to make these days? School, schedule, work, extra-curriculars, ministry, travel, family affairs, housing, health…the list goes on doesn’t it?

Chances are, many of you are navigating decisions that have to be made not just in terms of multiple categories, but for multiple people in your lives. All of this can lead to decision fatigue, because, let’s face it, we only have so much capacity for decision making each day.

Recently I started to write a blog post about decision fatigue as a wrap-up for my summer series, when I realized that over the years I’d written 3 blog posts on the topic. Typically these posts and emails experience higher readership than almost every other topic, except for when I write about the Cotswolds.

Why does decision fatigue garner such interest? To be honest, I don’t have a great answer, except that at no other time in history have we been inundated with so many queries requiring a response, decision, purchase, plans. I believe many of us are becoming weary as a result.

From emails to activity-specific apps, texts to social media platforms, we are at everyone’s beck and call, available to make decisions or respond to a need at any time of the day or night. Even up until very recently, the only way we could be summoned or interrupted instantly was via a landline.

We have access to endless search options for just about everything from travel itineraries to grocery items. Clothes shopping, hiring a plumber, or registering kids for activities were far more limited and simplified processes prior to our digital era.

Today’s digital constructs offer up information, requests, and options in tireless fashion, ever eroding our rest. As I witness my rest being upset by the endless barrage of information and communication, I’m learning to set better boundaries with regards to how I handle the overload and reduce the decision fatigue that it invites.

Below are 3 digital/device habits I’ve begun implementing over the past year in order to reduce decision fatigue:

My phone (and Will’s) stay in the kitchen for night. I don’t need the temptation of the internet, texts, photos, etc., if I wake in the night and am struggling to sleep. It’s not natural or timeless, and as my desire grows to implement more slow living strategies, those habits that don’t have a history are less likely to make the cut when it comes to my daily rhythms.
I (mostly) avoid checking my email, texts, or other message-related apps first thing in the morning. The same goes for online shopping or searching. My plans, my prayers, and my practices (working out, journaling, making tea etc.) need to come before the rest of the world is allowed to make their requests known or their products and services offered. I’m also trying to do less checking of my device in the evening and make ‘business hours’ a thing. If it’s not social/relationship-oriented, it probably doesn’t need to take up space in my head between dinner and breakfast.
With bigger decisions or requests I’m trying to spend more time thinking and praying about them instead of making decisions sooner than I ought. The decision or answer might wind up being the same in the end, but the habit of not responding, scheduling, or purchasing so soon is better for my nervous system and leaves me more calm and confident in my timing, responses, and choices.

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Ultimately, I feel like I’m reclaiming my brain through these slower, more intentional processes. Through boundaries that limit my access and exposure to the digital world and my devices, I’m giving myself the gift of rest. This helps to reduce decision fatigue, not because the decisions go away (they don’t), but because I’m able to make better decisions with more clarity when I address them at more appropriate times.

Is decision fatigue something you struggle with? I would love to know what aspect of this issue is a weak spot for you, as well as what has helped you manage decision fatigue. Feel free to write me at: hello@bringinginspiraitonhome.com or message me on Instagram @bringinginspirationhome

If you’re up for letting me share in a future newsletter, just let me know and I’m happy to either make your contribution anonymous or provide a first name. Click HERE to subscribe to my weekly newsletter for more slow living strategies, travel tips, and inspiration to help you tap into your creativity and experience deeper rest.

In the meantime, here are a few blog posts I’ve written over the past years that have helped me to reduce decision fatigue. I hope you enjoy them and pass along anything you find helpful to those who find themselves wanting the same thing: how to minimize the overwhelm and enjoy more abundant rest.

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Designing a Schedule that Revolves Around Rest

August 19, 2024

It might seem counterintuitive to dive into the topic of rest at the beginning of a busy season, but I believe there’s no better time for a refresher on rest than on the cusp of what could be chaos if not managed with intent and care.

For many years, I put rest on the back burner. It was what I ‘earned’ after putting in enough effort. I viewed rest as indulgent when life was clipping along at a steady pace and necessary when burnout hit. But only more recently have I begun to view rest with more reverence. Perhaps this is as a result of entering my 40’s and realizing with renewed perspective that time and health are both precious and precarious. I’ve become so much more aware of how rest is key to sustaining and stewarding the health, relationships, and time I’ve been granted. Rest is where I need to begin, not where I wind up.

Maybe you’re curious as to what that means and how that looks in real life. That’s something I’ve been attempting to define and navigate over the past couple of years. One thing I keep returning to is this intuitive sense that I need to put rest at the forefront of my scheduling, which has required a mindset shift.

When considering the season ahead, I now consider how much rest I/our family will require and plan our schedule accordingly, instead of fitting rest in amidst the busy days and weeks. I have begun thinking of my weekend as a time of rest that fuels my creative work of parenting, homeschooling, and running a business throughout the week, rather than aiming for the weekend in order to recover. Each day’s schedule begins with planning times of rest throughout my day before I insert all the to-do’s. I’m realizing that time spent ‘being’ is just as (if not more) critical to success as my time spent ‘doing’.

If flipping the script of earning our rest is intriguing to you, here are a few things you can do to integrate a more ‘slow living’ approach with rest as the core rather than the afterthought in your schedule.

Plan for one weekend a month and one day a week to be open-ended, leaving margin in your calendar. Just seeing or knowing that there is space for rest can reduce anxiety regarding exhaustion.
Begin each day with something that inspires and fuels you. Journaling, working out, sitting quietly with a Bible or book and cup of tea. Plan for a short break in the afternoon that will fuel the second half of your day – perhaps a walk after lunch, a catnap, or a podcast while puttering in the garden or folding laundry.
Consider which activities or stimuli in your day/week/month leave you feeling exhausted. Maybe it’s driving in rush hour, a cluttered home, or getting kids out the door for school/practice/activities. Tackling these things following a period of restorative rest leaves me feeling much less drained and far more engaged than when I just fly from one busy/noisy environment to the next.
Before saying ‘yes’ to a new commitment, decide what you’ll extract from your schedule so that you’re not sacrificing your margin.
Read up on the value of rest. Here are a couple books that have inspired me over the last while: “Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less” by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang and “The Sleep Revolution” by Arianna Huffington.

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Drawn to the concept of slowing down, experiencing deeper rest, and tapping into your creativity? Subscribe to my newsletter for Slow Living Strategies that help inspire a more creative, abundant life both at home and on the road.

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5 Ways to Increase Rest & Decrease Stress

August 12, 2024

As we prepare to launch into another school year, I’ve been thinking about what I what want this year to look like. It includes the following:

Increased time in nature
Less screen time & device dependence
A schedule that is oriented around restorative rest
More automation in order to reduce decision fatigue
Improved sleep quality

I’ve recently addressed the first two issues in my regular newsletter, which you can read here (nature edition) and here (screen time edition) but am diving into the other topics on my blog, as this is where I intend to spend more time exploring the concepts of rest and creativity that fuel and restore me whether I’m at home or on the road.

I am passionate about going out into the world (whether that be to far-flung locales or to just-around-the-corner antique stores and markets) and bringing inspiration back home. The cycle of going out into the world and being inspired, then weaving that inspiration into my rhythms and routines helps to ignite my creativity, which in turn enables me to thrive in various seasons and spaces.

If this appeals to you, I invite you to explore this space and stay tuned. You can also subscribe to my weekly newsletter which will keep you updated with my latest offerings (retreats, travel tips, slow rhythm strategies, and favourite finds) and links to fresh blog posts and photo collections.

I’ll be sharing very shortly about my thoughts regarding a schedule oriented around rest and how I intend to apply that to this coming year. One thing that I’ve been considering lately is how I seem to experience the best mental rest once my body has had a chance to slow down. My husband Will, however, told me that he functions best with the opposite approach.

Which works best for you? Slowing your body down first and letting your mental burdens lighten as a result, or letting go of your mental stressors in order to let your body rest? Feel free to share your personal preferences in the comments below or send me an email at: hello@bringinginspirationhome.com I’d love to chat further about why some of us slow down better one way and others require the opposite strategy!

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How Rest is Helping Me Lose Weight in a Healthy Way

March 11, 2024

**I’m sharing a bit about my struggle with weight the past few years and how I’m now losing some weight in a healthy way. If this is a triggering subject for you, feel free to pass over it and return if and when the time is right.**

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I have finally been able to lose weight for the first time in over two years and the reason may surprise you. Or perhaps if you’ve been reading my reflections for any length of time, the reason won’t surprise you at all.

The catalyst for my (small but steady) drop in weight has been rest. And I don’t mean a vacation, sleeping in, naps, or anything that we typically constitute as restful. In fact, the last 2.5 months have included travel with kids (fun but not restful!), hosting family, a couple rounds of colds, and a children’s musical that has required plenty of parent participation. I wouldn’t necessarily consider this winter to have been a restful one, though there have certainly been some truly memorable experiences.

In spite of the circumstances being somewhat more intense than normal, I’ve experienced more, rather than less, rest. How? Let me count the ways!

“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” – Augustine of Hippo

1. I’ve resigned myself to not let guilt, obligation, or fear stop me from resting when I can tell my brain and body need it. Instead of second-guessing or dwelling on the thoughts that prevent me from resting, I have put rest at the top of my to-do list knowing that the rest would enable me to be more productive and meet my responsibilities with more energy and a better attitude. I’ve discovered that tackling anything from a place of rest has nothing but benefits.

2. I have differentiated between two types of rest: the rest required to start a thing and the rest needed to recover from a thing. I feel like I’ve often rested after exertion, but not as often have I rested as the first step. Now I take time to rest before and after my efforts and find that I’m experiencing a well-rounded rhythm as a result. I’m also ‘vegging out’ less and resting with more intention. Less Netflix or show binging and more reading, walks, painting, journaling and time spent with God in prayer and in His Word.

3. I have become more attuned to my intuition in order to better discern when I require rest, or even when my family requires rest, and what exactly that rest should look like. Does it mean crawling into bed to read during the kids’ afternoon quiet time in order to ward off a cold, or does it look like a brisk morning walk around the park in the rain while Will does breakfast with the kids? Do I need to sit in the sunshine and listen to a business book or do I need to wake up early and sit with my journal by the fire? Do we need to stay home from an event and get some much-needed time to connect as a family or should Will and I make plans for a date and get some time without the kids? It’s so much easier to make these decisions with intention when rested and in tune with my intuition. I’ve been making decisions with more confidence and less guilt, more inspiration and less obligation. This alone provides much mental rest!

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” – John Lubbock

While experiencing more spiritual, physical, and mental rest, something else has transpired. My stress levels have gone down. And I know that if my stress has lessened, my cortisol levels aren’t as high. High cortisol prevents weight loss, so no matter how much I work out and how clean I eat, if my stress levels are up, my weight won’t come down. Elevated cortisol levels also lead to illness and disease. Our bodies cannot maintain high levels of intensity over a long period of time and stay healthy.

Once my I reduced my stress levels, I realized that I was making healthier food choices because I wasn’t eating to fill an emotional void. I started exercising more in order to lower stress rather than to lose weight, and I wound up losing weight anyway. Finding ways to keep my stress to a minimum has had an impact on more than just my weight. I feel so much healthier as a whole and can see how my desire to seek rest has been impacting my family. The pursuit of rest in all its healthiest, truest forms has become more ingrained into the rhythms of my days and weeks over the past few months, and I am so excited to be on the slow train!

If you’d like to read some of my more recent reflections on rest, here are some of my most recent newsletters:

To read more from past issues, click HERE to subscribe to my weekly newsletter and I’ll make sure you have access to more of my recent editions!

If you are longing for an extended time of rest that would enable you to tap into your intuition more fully, why not join me on my Women’s Walking Retreat in the Cotswolds. During our week of walks through the English countryside, you’ll have the time and space to let decision fatigue fade, the natural world speak to your senses, your spiritual life deepen, your imagination flourish, and your intuition reawaken. If you’re feeling conflicted, burdened, overwhelmed, or in need of a re-set, my Women’s Walking Retreat has been designed with you in mind.

As we walk, we’ll stop in ancient churches along the way where you’ll have time to pray or journal, and where we’ll sing hymns and connect. I’ll be teaching on creativity and rest throughout the retreat so that you can take the restoration and inspiration you experience and integrate it into your rhythms back home. My co-leader is a trained therapist and will be providing support if you’d like to process with her. This retreat is designed to offer a time of restoration and inspiration that will serve you for years to come. Please email me at hello@bringinginspirationhome.com if you are interested! You can also click HERE for details.

I hope to see you there! — Jaime

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The Value of Silence in a World of Noise

January 17, 2023

One of my favourite times of the year is the beginning of a new one. I love a blank canvas, a fresh notebook, or an empty calendar, because each of them have the same thing in common: untapped potential. The thing with limitless options, however, is that I tend to want to say book them all faster than you can say RSVP.

In the past this has lead to some problems for me, such as overcommitment, overwhelm, and overstimulation. Clearly me + ‘over’ don’t function well together. Instead I’ve discovered that a slow and steady mentality, while maybe not quite so exciting, is a much healthier mindset for me to live with on a day to day basis. More tortoise, less hare, to put it concisely.

“Instead I’ve discovered that a slow and steady mentality is a much healthier mindset for me to live with on a day to day basis.”

So when January bursts onto the scene filled with fresh prospects and exciting opportunities, it takes everything in me not to say ‘yes’ to all of them without a second thought. Which is why I desperately need to embrace the scarcity and silence of the winter season and apply it to my daily experience. Looking for, and lingering in, silence allows me the time to consider my values and my reasons for saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to various opportunities.

Since silence is a gift that helps me make decisions, it’s something I need to reconsider at the beginning of every year, and probably more often than that. Silence helps me tap into my intuition, pray about possibilities, seek a greater purpose for my life, and question my motives. When I do these things, I tend to make choices that I’m at peace with, even if the decisions don’t thrill me.

“I require silence in order to weigh, sort, sift, and meditate on all these things, and put solid decision-making at risk if I relinquish too much time to the noise that vies for my attention.”

In a world full of noise, I have to deliberately carve out space for silence. To choose to drive without music. Do the dishes without a podcast playing. Edit photos without a movie on in the background. Work out without a business training or tutorial to listen to or watch. Go to bed without an audio book lulling me to sleep. I love learning, growing, and understanding, so much of what I choose to ingest, media-wise, is beneficial. But too much time listening to other voices and perspectives, no matter how relevant or informative they are, can easily drown out what I need to hear most: Biblical teaching, the Spirit’s guidance, the wisdom of those whom I trust, and my own thoughts and desires. I require silence in order to weigh, sort, sift, and meditate on all these things, and put solid decision-making at risk if I relinquish too much time to the noise that vies for my attention.

I also need silence in order to allow my mind to wander, grant my heart time to feel, and let my imagination create. Too often scrolling, playlists, and the next new thing on Netflix tempt me to trade time in silence for ‘inspiration’. But for inspiration to truly take root, to have an impact beyond an ‘aha’ moment, silence is a requirement. It serves as the blank page for our creativity, and I believe that without it, we would cease to produce original thought or truly inspirational work of our own.

Last winter I had the chance to spend many hours hunting alone in a tree stand. I did listen to an audio book here and there, but I knew that if I really wanted to get a decent shot, I’d have to surrender all of my senses to the opportunity at hand. I needed to be as present and as undistracted as possible. To sit in the quiet of nature, and to practice not only silence, but observation, solitude, and stillness. The discipline paid off — I culled two deer which filled my family’s freezer for a year.

This winter, I may not have the opportunity to be enveloped by the all-encompassing practice of hunting, but I can take what I gleaned from the experience and apply it to my every day suburban lifestyle.

I can take 5 minutes in a parking lot to sit quietly before returning home from grocery shopping. I can lie in bed before I arise and think about what I’m most grateful for, BEFORE I’ve checked my inbox or social media feeds. I can sit by my kids’ bedsides once they’re asleep and devote those quiet moments to prayer. To listening. To breathing. Deeply and intentionally. I can be still and know. In the quiet moments of my day, I can listen to the still, small voice that nudges me towards my best yes.

“But for inspiration to truly take root, to have an impact beyond an ‘aha’ moment, silence is a requirement. It serves as the blank page for our creativity, and I believe that without it, we would cease to produce original thought or truly inspirational work of our own.”

It is difficult as a mom to find moments for silence. To find moments of stillness, solitude, AND silence is virtually impossible unless I specifically carve out a time to either leave my house or have my family leave it! This trifecta often feels unattainable. But to find a moment or two for just one of these practices is usually doable if I intentionally look for them. And I need to remember that before I flood my calendar, every ‘yes’ requires some silence.

If you are looking for an extended time in which to practice silence, my Women’s Walking Retreat is a fantastic opportunity. One of the things I notice when I walk long distances is that my prayer life moves from being one of talking to God, to one of listening to Him. Being in nature and becoming attuned to the creation around oneself enhances this act of listening in silence. If you have decisions to make for the future, healing from the past to pursue, or just the desire to be present in the moment, my Women’s Walking Retreat is an experience that will enable you to embrace all three. But I promise it’s not a silent retreat! There are loads of opportunities to connect and bond with the other women on the trip. Click HERE to learn more.

Looking to tap into your intuition more? Click HERE and HERE for two posts on how I’ve pursued the practice of honing my intuition.

Interested in more slow living strategies to increase your rest, enhance your creativity, and bring inspiration home? Subscribe to my weekly newsletter for slow living inspiration, travel tips, and opportunities to rest, create, and explore the world with me in person. Join me on the journey HERE.

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