Hey there, do you ever feel like your life is on this perpetual roller coaster, and it's taking everything you've got just to hang on tight? With demands piling up, from your time to your energy, it feels like you're running a race you just can't win—not quite the abundant life we're promised, right?
This week on the Nourished to Bloom podcast (Episode 57!), we're embracing an unexpected ally in our hectic lives: Rest. But here's the twist—rest isn't just lounging on the couch or grabbing a few extra winks. It's a sacred necessity woven into our very design by God Himself. It's not just about physical renewal; it's about refreshing your spirit, reconnecting with your purpose, and ultimately making you more productive.
Here are some key takeaways:
✨ Rest as a Sacred Necessity: Discovering how rest is woven into God's design for us. It's not a luxury or a reward—it's an essential part of being human and honoring God's creation.
🙏 Practical Steps to Embrace Rest: We explore simple steps like lighting a candle and focusing on the flame, creating sacred moments of stillness and reflection.
💡 Rest Increases Productivity: Unravel the myth of constant busyness and learn how intentional rest can actually boost creativity, renew your energy, and improve problem-solving skills.
🌼 Living the Rhythm of Sabbath: Whether it's a daily pause or the traditional Sabbath, learn how to integrate moments of holy rest into your life.
As we continue our Lenten journey, I invite you to fast from busyness and seek a rhythm of rest that nourishes your body and soul.
Let's remember that we don't have to do it all—sometimes the most productive thing we can do is to rest with our Lord.
📣 Are you ready to reclaim rest as a sacred part of your life? Join our Lenten Q&A live sessions every Wednesday at 1 PM Central Time to explore how you can weave faith and wellness into your daily routine. This week's session is all about embracing rest! Find out more at lent.karatrochta.com
Next Steps:
- Join the free Lenten Q&A live sessions every Wednesday at 1 PM Central Time: lent.karatrochta.com
- Book your FREE Wellness Audit Session at https://calendly.com/karatrochta/faithledwellness
- Join the 7-Day Faith-Led Wellness Challenge: www.challenge.karatrochta.com
- Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karatrochta/
- Nourished to Bloom Community: https://community.karatrochta.com/spaces/8590323/list
- Nourished to Bloom Show Notes: https://nourishedtobloom.com
Join The Nourished to Bloom Community: www.community.karatrochta.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/karatrochta
The Nourished to Bloom Podcast Show Notes: www.podcast.karatrochta.com/shownotes
00:00:00
So can you feel it? Can you feel that
00:00:04
like tension and that momentum, like just
00:00:08
rising within your body, within your
00:00:12
mind? That life is about to
00:00:16
hit that may some roller coaster and you are about
00:00:20
to be holding on for dear life
00:00:23
with all the things that are going to demand your
00:00:26
time, your attention, your money and
00:00:30
man oh man, does it get crazy. Well,
00:00:34
today we are going to talk about rest
00:00:38
and how, spoiler alert, rest
00:00:42
can actually make you more productive.
00:00:45
So I hope you'll join me for today's episode where we talk
00:00:49
about rest as a sacred
00:00:52
necessity and how part of God's good design for
00:00:56
our human bodies and our human minds includes rest.
00:00:59
And how we can start to make our rest more holy
00:01:03
and more beneficial to our
00:01:07
daily lives. So let's dive in.
00:01:11
Welcome to the Nourish to Bloom podcast where your faith meets
00:01:15
your health. I'm your host, Kara Trachta, a registered dietitian and
00:01:18
certified Catholic coach, and I'm here to help you cultivate a deeper connection
00:01:22
with your body, your spirit, and the nourishment that sustains them
00:01:26
both. In a world filled with noise and confusion
00:01:30
about food, health and body image, this podcast offers truth
00:01:34
and healing from a Christ centered perspective. Together, we'll
00:01:37
untangle the deep roots of diet culture and discover what it means to
00:01:41
truly care for ourselves through joyful nourishment of
00:01:45
mind, body and soul. We're here to dive into the transformative
00:01:49
power of intuitive eating coupled with the rich teachings of our Christian
00:01:52
faith. With every episode, I'll be cheering you on,
00:01:55
offering insights, inspiration and practical tools to help you
00:01:59
heal your relationship with food and embrace the beauty of
00:02:03
your body as a temple of the Holy Spirit with confidence
00:02:07
and courage that can only be found in Christ.
00:02:10
Join me as we journey together towards a more holistic approach to wellness,
00:02:14
one that honors the wisdom of your body as God's creation,
00:02:18
the teachings of our faith, and the unique purpose you're called to
00:02:22
fulfill. You were made to bloom,
00:02:26
to come into full beauty and health in order to bear good fruit
00:02:29
for the Lord with your life. So if you're ready to nourish your body,
00:02:33
feed your soul, and bloom into the best version of yourself, then you're in
00:02:37
the right place. And I'm so happy you're here. Welcome
00:02:41
to Nourish to Bloom, where every day is a sacred
00:02:44
invitation to thrive. Hey
00:02:47
there. Welcome back to another episode of the
00:02:51
Nourish to Bloom podcast. I'm so, so happy that you
00:02:55
are here. I have to tell you
00:02:59
that this podcast is episode is
00:03:02
100% a clap collaboration with God
00:03:06
and I today and how it
00:03:09
actually is fruit
00:03:13
from me taking some time to rest. So
00:03:16
if you're listening to this episode, I have a feeling that
00:03:20
you may be like me and most other moms, that,
00:03:24
gosh, you're just tired. Not like,
00:03:28
like sleepy, like, not that kind of tired, but like
00:03:32
that bone deep tired. Like,
00:03:35
not because you may not be getting great sleep
00:03:39
or you know, those like endless
00:03:43
to do lists, but it's like this deeper feeling of
00:03:46
being tired, like that you are just
00:03:50
kind of exhausted with the whole pace of your life
00:03:54
and you are just holding it all together day
00:03:58
after day. And I want you to know that I see
00:04:01
you. And today
00:04:05
that was like how I
00:04:08
felt from the moment I woke up this morning till right
00:04:12
now that there was just this
00:04:16
got wrecking ball. I mean, I don't really know, but it
00:04:20
just like today just hit me right upside the head. And it
00:04:23
was like so many things were demanding my attention.
00:04:28
Completely forgot about this special homework that parents
00:04:32
had to do for our kids before they take their
00:04:35
state standardized test. We, they, the teachers asked
00:04:39
us to write letters to the kids with words of
00:04:42
encouragement that they can open up on that day
00:04:46
for the assessment. So literally, this has been sitting on my
00:04:50
counter for a week. And it was due today and just
00:04:54
completely forgot until I got the note from the teacher saying,
00:04:58
this is due today. Like, okay, I need to write those letters. And
00:05:01
then I get a note from another kid's teacher, hey, can you send in the
00:05:05
money for the field trip? And it's like, okay, I can do that.
00:05:09
We just laid. Sod. My husband calls me and he's like, hey, you need to
00:05:12
water the new soda. And it's like, okay. I scheduled a
00:05:16
grocery pickup at a certain time that seemed convenient. And before
00:05:19
my day actually got started, only to show up and they were still
00:05:23
shopping for my order and I had to wait for it for 30 minutes.
00:05:26
I mean, literally, it's just been this spiral. This afternoon we have two
00:05:30
baseball games. One kid has to get to dance. I mean,
00:05:34
just it's never ending. And you get it, and I know that
00:05:38
you get it, and I know that you get it. But the
00:05:42
other thing that was just kind of like piled on top with like, all right,
00:05:45
Kara, you got to do a podcast episode. You got to get this recorded
00:05:49
today. It has to come out tomorrow. What are you going to talk about? What
00:05:52
are you going to talk about for this week's Linton Challenge?
00:05:56
And I just, you know, kept going blank. Like, nothing
00:05:59
really resonated. Just you know,
00:06:03
spiraling is what this all was. And
00:06:06
I was just walking around my house like, lord, what do you want
00:06:10
me to say in this podcast? Lord, what do you want me to say? What
00:06:14
message do you want me to send? And the word that popped
00:06:18
into my head was rest. And then the next
00:06:22
word was come sit. And it was like, okay.
00:06:26
So I was like, all right, I'm gonna just sit.
00:06:29
The Lord's asking me to sit, so I'm going to sit. And if you know
00:06:33
me, I have a really tough time with just sitting still. It's. It's very
00:06:36
difficult for me to just sit still. Like, even in
00:06:40
intentional prayer time, I just can't sit still. My mind races,
00:06:44
my mind wonders. I have a very active mind. And so today
00:06:48
I decided, you know what? I'm going to try this trick that
00:06:51
I learned, that if you, like, you light a candle and just focus on the
00:06:55
flame, right? And if you can just focus on the flame and on nothing else,
00:06:59
it helps to just keep your focus on that one thing and your
00:07:02
mind doesn't start to wander all over the place. I was like, okay, the little.
00:07:06
The Lord's telling me to come sit and I'm going to light this candle, candle,
00:07:08
and I'm just gonna see what happens.
00:07:12
And I just sat there and I asked the
00:07:16
question again, Lord, what do you want me to say in the podcast
00:07:20
today? He's like, rust. I said, okay. So I'm
00:07:23
thinking he wants me to talk about rest for all of these
00:07:27
women. And I said, okay, Lord, what are the
00:07:31
words? And I kid you not,
00:07:34
words just started coming to me. Thoughts just started coming to me about the
00:07:38
idea of rest and about how rest is
00:07:41
really a key, fundamental part of this faith
00:07:45
led wellness that we are all trying to embody and
00:07:49
embrace and grow in. And so
00:07:53
I just sat there and I had my notebook and I just jotted
00:07:56
down the things that kept coming to me. I said, okay, Lord, is that it?
00:08:00
Or what else? Or, you know, Lord, what do you mean by
00:08:04
rest? And he. He guys, he gave me that gift. Like,
00:08:07
he gave me the words that he wanted me to
00:08:11
share. And that's how today's
00:08:14
podcast episode came about, was through taking just that
00:08:18
moment of rest, of being able to rest in him and taking
00:08:22
this to him and just having this conversation, this. This relationship,
00:08:25
and just being able to have this dialogue. And
00:08:29
I think it's just that testimony to how he's going to provide. If we
00:08:33
just stop and rest and give it
00:08:36
to him, he's going to tell us exactly what we need to hear.
00:08:40
And so I want you to hear this very clearly,
00:08:45
very loudly, but very clearly.
00:08:48
But it's going to come out like a whisper from the Lord, right.
00:08:52
To your overtired, over scheduled, weary
00:08:56
heart. Come to me,
00:08:59
all you who are weary and burdened.
00:09:03
I will give you rest. Matthew
00:09:06
11:28. Y'all, that's what he
00:09:10
gives us. He gives us that kind of rest, that kind
00:09:14
that fills you, that
00:09:17
renews you, that breathes life back into your
00:09:20
soul. Right. Just thinking about, like, blowing up a balloon or
00:09:24
blowing into a paper bag. Right. That it just inflates and it
00:09:28
fills. That's what the Lord is offering us.
00:09:32
Yeah. So today we are going to talk about rest and not
00:09:36
just sleep, although sleep is very, very important.
00:09:40
Sleep is a type of rest. But we're not just going to talk about
00:09:44
sleep or vegging out on the couch, although both of those
00:09:47
things a hundred percent have their place. But I really want to
00:09:51
focus on this, this deeper, more sacred kind
00:09:55
of rest, the kind that allows us to really
00:09:58
reconnect us with ourselves and
00:10:02
with the Lord. So wherever you are right now,
00:10:06
I just want you to take a deep breath. Just
00:10:09
settle yourself. Just
00:10:15
be still. Take that deep breath.
00:10:19
Because you need to know right now that rest is sacred.
00:10:22
It's not selfish. Somewhere along
00:10:26
the way, thanks to all of these external influences and
00:10:30
this crazy culture that we live in, we started treating rest
00:10:34
like it was a reward, like it's something that we can only
00:10:37
have after we finish everything else that's on our list.
00:10:41
But if we stop and we look at this from God's human design,
00:10:45
like, we look at our nutrition and we look at our
00:10:48
movement, like, take into into consideration God's design
00:10:52
of the human body. He created
00:10:56
us to be human. We are going to have human needs. Even when
00:11:00
Jesus walked this earth, he had human needs.
00:11:03
God's design meant that rest isn't a
00:11:06
luxury. God's design
00:11:10
made rest necessary.
00:11:14
It takes on this sacred value in our lives.
00:11:19
And he modeled it Himself after creating this world.
00:11:23
Right? He didn't rest because he was tired.
00:11:27
He rested to be able to enjoy what he had
00:11:30
made, to delight, to be present, to
00:11:34
connect with creation. And he
00:11:37
invites us into that same rhythm. And I
00:11:41
think seasons like Lent are really
00:11:45
beneficial and advantageous to things like
00:11:48
rest because it can allow us to
00:11:52
intentionally slow down, to be able to reflect, and to
00:11:56
intentionally do things that are preparing our hearts.
00:12:01
During the season of Lent, we talk about prayer and we talk about
00:12:04
fasting and we talk about scaling. But I think
00:12:08
Rest is what allows us to be able to focus on
00:12:12
those spiritual disciplines during the season of Lent.
00:12:16
So what if for the remainder of Lent you fasted from
00:12:19
busyness? What if your act
00:12:23
of charity was creating more space in your soul
00:12:27
just to be with him?
00:12:34
Because rest is really how we heal. How
00:12:38
we heal physically, how we feel, heal mentally,
00:12:41
and how we heal spiritually. Because
00:12:45
without rest, all we're doing is running ourselves into the ground.
00:12:49
It's when burnout becomes our baseline. It's when
00:12:52
burnout becomes the reality. And we all know
00:12:56
what happens when we reach that point of burnout. We
00:13:00
become short with the people that we love the most. We have
00:13:03
little, little patience for anything that's not
00:13:07
going our way, right? We become resentful of our
00:13:11
responsibilities and. And bitter about
00:13:14
the pace of life. But know that your pace of life is a hundred
00:13:18
percent a choice. That everything that you have
00:13:22
committed to has been a choice.
00:13:26
So maybe take a step back and
00:13:30
own your choices, right? Recognize
00:13:34
when you've over exerted yourself, when you've over scheduled your
00:13:37
life and ask yourself, if you
00:13:41
are unhappy with this pace of life, what do you choose to do
00:13:44
differently? Because we have bought
00:13:48
into this lie that productivity equals
00:13:52
worth. That the more that we are doing, the better person
00:13:55
we will be. But y'all,
00:13:59
at the end of the day, this productivity first
00:14:03
mindset is really just another false idol
00:14:07
in our lives that we unknowingly worship,
00:14:11
right? We focus on how much we can
00:14:14
get done instead of really focusing
00:14:18
on what is meaningful in our lives.
00:14:23
Jesus says, my yoke is easy and my burden
00:14:27
is light. What does he mean by that, y'all? He's
00:14:31
not asking us to do more. He is offering
00:14:35
us to do it with him. He's offering us a
00:14:38
better way to live. Do it with him, y'all. It's like the
00:14:42
ultimate life hack that we've all been searching for. Like, how many
00:14:45
times does it just so simply show up that, hey, we
00:14:49
just need Jesus? Just like that song says,
00:14:53
right? I think we all just need Jesus. It's so simple,
00:14:57
yet we fight it so hard.
00:15:01
So push that easy button he's offering you.
00:15:04
Collaborate with him, do it with him. And the
00:15:08
way that you start to collaborate and the way that you start
00:15:12
to do this with him is through
00:15:15
rest, through meaningful rest.
00:15:19
Because I know there's times that we all feel like Martha,
00:15:22
right? We're rushing around, we're getting things done, we're making sure
00:15:26
that everyone else is taken care of. But if we're honest
00:15:30
with ourselves, I think what we crave, what we
00:15:34
really, really want, deep down, is that we long
00:15:37
to be merry. Like, we long to just be able
00:15:41
to sit at the feet of Jesus and
00:15:45
soaking in his presence, like, just being y'all. Like, seriously,
00:15:48
how wonderful does that sound?
00:15:52
But we get so mixed up. We get
00:15:56
so entangled because the world demands our Martha.
00:15:59
And yes, the Lord does not ask us to shy away
00:16:03
from our vocations and our responsibilities and the things that we know that we
00:16:07
need to do, but our world demands us
00:16:11
to be Martha 24:7. But
00:16:14
Jesus invites us into these merry
00:16:18
moments, these moments of just sitting at his feet and soaking
00:16:22
in his presence. And they come to us in the form of
00:16:26
rest. That's where we receive that invitation
00:16:30
through rest. It's where we notice the
00:16:34
flowers that are blooming outside. We
00:16:37
hear the birds singing. We feel the sun on
00:16:41
our face. Or we feel that nudge on our heart during
00:16:45
quiet prayer. Rest is where we
00:16:48
can really start to see these tokens of love
00:16:52
that the Lord puts in our path,
00:16:56
where you notice that flower, and he's like, okay, you saw that.
00:17:01
Look at me. Just see my face, right? See what I did for you?
00:17:05
Come enjoy this. Right? Rest is how we
00:17:09
learn to make room for joy,
00:17:13
that if we don't rest, we miss out on the joy.
00:17:16
And joy is what keeps us going
00:17:21
when we don't take time to rest. It
00:17:25
means that we are so busy, we are so
00:17:28
consumed by the overwhelm that we don't get to really
00:17:32
experience the joy in our everyday lives that the Lord
00:17:36
puts there for us to notice, to
00:17:39
enjoy, to appreciate, to have gratitude
00:17:43
for when we have
00:17:47
rest, it just makes more room for joy, right? It's like rest
00:17:51
is how we prepare for joy for that celebration.
00:17:55
Just like Lent is how we prepare for Easter.
00:17:59
Easter wouldn't be as special, as amazing, as
00:18:03
joyful if we didn't have to go through the season of Lent,
00:18:07
right? So it's all about this preparation.
00:18:11
Look, I know you're. You're probably thinking like, cara, this
00:18:15
sounds wonderful, but I don't have
00:18:18
time to rest. I get it.
00:18:22
I've told myself the same thing. But did you
00:18:25
know, here's the truth. That rest
00:18:29
actually makes you more productive, right? Like, if you
00:18:33
do. If you want a backwards way into, like,
00:18:36
purposely and intentionally resting, just tell yourself, okay, if I rest,
00:18:40
I'm going to be more productive, right? Maybe that's.
00:18:44
That's kind of how you lead into this.
00:18:48
But y'all, rest actually can make us more productive. It's not
00:18:51
wasted Time, it's time that refuels us
00:18:55
and when we can, you know, really embody
00:18:58
rest, we see so many benefits. Not only
00:19:02
are we more productive, but we have
00:19:05
improved creativity and problem solving. We're able to
00:19:09
see things with a renewed mind, a renewed
00:19:12
heart, a renewed body. And it, it makes us able to
00:19:16
approach these, you know, problems and challenges of everyday
00:19:20
life with more energy,
00:19:23
right? It helps to reduce the stress in our bodies and it
00:19:27
helps to prevent burnout. And it's
00:19:31
shown to have improved physical and mental health. So we have a
00:19:34
better total sense of well being, right? And so
00:19:38
there's, there's differences between the kinds of rest that there is.
00:19:42
So we have what we call, like passive rest, and we have active rest,
00:19:46
and we do need both. So passive rest is things
00:19:49
like taking a nap or sleeping,
00:19:53
just relaxing, like curling up under a blanket and
00:19:57
just kind of zoning out, right?
00:20:01
Whereas active rest, that is time
00:20:05
that we spend in prayer or time that we spend journaling,
00:20:09
maybe stretching our body, taking a walk through nature
00:20:13
or doing something creative. This active rest is anything
00:20:17
that refreshes your soul and helps you feel
00:20:20
more like yourself, more like who
00:20:24
God created you to be, right? So that
00:20:27
passive rest is like, oh, gosh,
00:20:32
I'm not going to say like you need it physically and
00:20:35
mentally and emotionally, right? It's like your body biologically
00:20:39
needs that, right? We talk about biological hunger, right?
00:20:43
Your body has this, this thing that it needs.
00:20:46
Active rest is like rest for your mind
00:20:50
and your soul, right? So active rest would be like the
00:20:54
satisfaction piece of, of eating, right? Like, we know
00:20:58
that when we're eating balanced and nourished meals, it
00:21:01
includes, like, the nourishing foods that our body needs as
00:21:05
well as a satisfaction that our minds want of,
00:21:09
like, foods that taste good to us. And when we bring these two things together,
00:21:12
we are able to achieve that. That
00:21:16
fullness, right? That good level of fullness.
00:21:20
It's kind of the same thing with rest. Like, passive rest is that, like, your
00:21:24
body needs this and this active rest is like that mental
00:21:27
satisfaction. So active rest is something that's going to refresh your
00:21:31
soul and your mind and helps you feel more you.
00:21:35
And it's also the kind of rest that helps reduce stress and
00:21:39
anxiety. It's the rest that boosts your creativity and
00:21:43
your focus. It's restoring your mental and physical health,
00:21:48
and it makes space for God to speak to you. Just like I said
00:21:51
about how this podcast came to be, it was me sitting
00:21:55
down with the Lord and saying, okay, I'm just going to take this Time to.
00:21:59
To rest. This active rest I'm going to pray about. Lord,
00:22:02
what it is that you want me to say in today's podcast episode.
00:22:06
And when I did that, he spoke to me. He shared with me the
00:22:10
message that he wanted me to share. And
00:22:13
so that that active rest really leads
00:22:17
to, you know, a greater sense of productivity, y'all. Like, it took
00:22:21
me five minutes to put this whole podcast
00:22:24
episode together after the Lord spoke to me, right?
00:22:28
Just sending that time in rest. And I had been
00:22:32
spending all day like, oh, what am I going to write about? What am I
00:22:35
going to write about? What am I going to write about? I try to sit
00:22:38
at my computer and think of something, but immediately when I went to
00:22:41
the Lord and I rested at Him, I sat at his feet, I surrendered it
00:22:45
to Him. I said, lord, I need your help. Please help me know what
00:22:49
to say. It was like that easy button was
00:22:52
hit, and he increased that productivity
00:22:56
for me. So
00:23:00
what kind of rest is he inviting you to today?
00:23:04
Maybe it's just starting with five or ten minutes
00:23:07
today. Maybe lighting a candle,
00:23:11
opening your Bible. Maybe it's taking a walk and
00:23:14
just talking with God as you go. Like, just
00:23:18
embody God. Make him a real person. When you
00:23:21
have the. This time of rest and the conversation
00:23:25
is so fruitful, like, let this
00:23:28
be the season where you rest on purpose.
00:23:32
What would that look like? Rest on purpose? Let it
00:23:36
be the time where you prepare your heart not by doing
00:23:39
more, but by doing less with
00:23:43
Him. So for the remainder of
00:23:46
Lent, try to fast from that rush
00:23:50
and really learn to reclaim that sacred rhythm of.
00:23:54
Of Sabbath, right? And not just on Sundays, but
00:23:58
in the everyday. How can we have these little daily Sabbaths of
00:24:02
just reclaiming that sacred rhythm of rest every day?
00:24:07
And learn to sit at his feet and remember that you don't have to
00:24:10
hold it all together because it's really
00:24:14
God who's holding us. And so I
00:24:18
pray that this episode just gives you permission to pause,
00:24:22
to breathe and to know that you're not alone
00:24:25
in your feeling of tiredness or weariness.
00:24:29
And just remember that God is not asking you to hustle harder.
00:24:33
The world may be asking you to hustle harder, but he's
00:24:37
just asking you to come closer.
00:24:41
So if this episode was meaningful to you today, there's probably
00:24:45
another mom out there who needs to hear this same message.
00:24:48
So please share the Nourish to Bloom podcast with another
00:24:52
woman in your life that you know could benefit from hearing this
00:24:56
message. And if you're looking for more ways to weave
00:25:00
your faith and wellness together. Just remember that we still have
00:25:04
our Lenten Q and A live sessions on Wednesdays at
00:25:07
1pm Central Time and you can find all the details you
00:25:11
need to join us this week as we talk about rest by
00:25:14
visiting lent.caratracta.com
00:25:18
so until next time, I hope that you
00:25:22
find some time for embracing this holy rest.
00:25:26
And just remember that beauty held is the seed, beauty
00:25:29
shared is the flower. It is your time to bloom.
00:25:33
I hope you have a beautiful and blessed week and we will talk
00:25:37
soon. Bye.