For the next seven days we’ll be talking about the seven different types of rest and why you might be struggling even though “you’re taking care of yourself.”

Author Saundra Dalton-Smith outlines each in her book, “Sacred Rest.” There’s creative, mental, emotional, social, sensory, spiritual and physical rest, all of which serve a different purpose in your self-care toolkit.

Let’s dive into Spiritual Rest here.

Dalton Smith defines SPIRITUAL REST as the capacity to experience God in all things and recline in the knowledge of the Holy.

For those of us with a complicated relationship with religion, understand that spiritual rest is less about organized religion and your own personal relationship with the world around you and your place in it.

A few spiritual activities that fulfill the spiritual rest requirement:

Affirmations

Affirmations work by tapping deep into the meat of who you are. Consider them nudges from the universe that give you the right message at the right time. Reading and reciting affirmations are proven to have a positive effect on the mind, giving you a better head space to operate from. Each of our 52 affirmations gives you a message of self-love, confidence + optimism, perfect for when you can't give it to yourself.

Genealogy/Ancestral Praise

Recently I decided to get back to my genealogy efforts and finish pulling together my family tree as far back as I could go. Of course, being Black means that my search hits a lot of dead ends and often it’s frustrating more than enlightening. But I keep at it because it requires me to do two things: 1) consider the lives of those ancestors who came before me and 2) reflect on how their decisions placed me where I am today. Building out the relationship between you and your ancestors allows you to see your role in the bigger picture.

Nature appreciation

Talking a walk might not feel like a spiritual practice but it allows us to be one with creation. Seeing the leaves change, the wind blow, the rain fall….all of those connect us to earth and ground us in a way that is holy. My favorite spiritual practice is to sit on the porch and meditate while it rains.

Crying

So many of us try not to cry. But when we hold back our tears, we’re literally preventing our bodies from working as they should. Researchers have studied various types tears and discovered their chemical composition is different when you’re chopping onions versus wailing in grief. The body releases stress hormones and its version of painkillers within the sad, hurt, angry tears. It works to heal you. If that’s not a spiritual practice….I don’t know what is!

Fellowship

Connecting with like-minded people around a particular topic or shared interest is connection and holiness at its best. Find some virtual or socially distanced (I’m for real y’all — it’s still a pandemic) opportunities to connect with people. This could be something like Bible study, but it could also be something as simple as weekly check-in sessions.

More in the REST series: