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How Rest is Helping Me Lose Weight in a Healthy Way

**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

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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