Permission to Rest! Does This Sound Impossible?

When Debra and her husband did balance their work and rest time properly, they would become extremely blessed financially. But when out of balance...everything would go terribly wrong!

I’d like to share something I learned from Debra Mae White's book, Permission to Rest: How to Cultivate a Life of Self-care, Rejuvenation, and Nurturing the Spirit (White, 2014). White discusses the signs that crop up when we get out of life balance, how to listen to those signals and give ourselves permission to rest. For Debra and her husband, strange mishaps would begin to occur in their lives, like customers not paying them and making up excuses; flat tires; or getting sick. These odd mishaps would be the signal that they were out of balance and needed to rest; their personal barometer to tell them they needed to stop, reassess, take time off, and get back into balance.

            Debra notes that, when she did balance her work and rest time properly, she would become extremely blessed financially. When she handled client matters in a balanced way while honoring her own need to rest, the cash flow was unimpeded. But when she started pushing too hard, working too much, the flow of money would stop cold. She would think to herself, “If business is bad, shouldn’t we be doing more? Making more calls, doing more marketing?” But finally, she realized that doing more to get more simply didn’t work for her. She found that when she would just stop, maybe take a week off, or a short vacation, that when she got home, it was not unusual for thousands of dollars to show up unexpectedly in her mailbox or many clients calling with business when she honored her need, listened to the clues to stop and rest and get back into balance. She understood that the problems, “bad luck,” and business slow-downs were her signs from God to do exactly that, stop everything, trust God fully and surrender to Him. She also came to realize that everything comes from God and that if she took the time to get back into balance and remember where her business and provision comes from, God showed up to bless abundantly and the flow began again—without fail. Excerpt from "Awakening From Unconscious Resentment" by Angela Clark