Rest & Distraction - Day 32

When we're honest about the rest we need we are also honest about the ways our distractions keep us from rest. Imagine a spectrum. On one side of the spectrum we find focus, on the other, distraction. Rest is where we find our perspective. Too much focus can pull us from the life that surrounds us, the world, its experiences, creatures, relationships. Distraction is focus without roots, attention flitting from one moment to another. The gift of rest is in how it can meet us wherever we are, in the depths of our focus or in the flurry of distraction. Sabbath living is attuned to the rhythms of rest. We need sabbath everyday, for many reasons, but especially because we are in such a battle against distraction.



Last night I went to a body, mind, meditation class. On one level, you could say it was weird. It wasn't quite yoga, it wasn't quite meditation, we used weights, the teacher was "different." But it ended with one of the best savasana experiences I've had in a while. Letting go of the weirdness allowed me to sink into the self-care that was being offered. In any class like this, it's easy to become distracted with the people around you or how weird you feel trying something new. But if you can shed all of that distraction and just be you end up having a powerful experience of reconnection. It's both powerful and peaceful at the same time. To just be in this way, shedding the distraction of others, strangeness, judgments... is an experience of rest.

Watching TV can be restful. It is not the best option, but many of us use it because it's an easy option. It all depends on what you're watching and how long. Many of us have experienced watching TV late at night, tired and ready to sleep, but staying up and finishing a show (or two) anyways. When that happens TV shifts from being a tool of rest to a distraction. You allow yourself distraction from yourself. Your body is tired, your eyes, your mind, but you distract yourself away from that with TV. I've done it, but at the expense of the rest I needed for the new day.

As I mentioned earlier this week, facebook is not rest. The scrolling, reading, commenting, liking, scrolling, not liking, checking, scrolling. It is not restful and falls too easily into distraction. So many of us use it exactly as a distraction, to step away from the work we know we should do, or to break the silence of a quiet moment. It can also be distraction from creating full relationships. It's too easy to tell ourselves we're "friends" only because we follow each other on facebook, not because we actually spend the time necessary to know, understand, and support each other.

Return to the spectrum I spoke of in the first paragraph. All of these things can fall somewhere between focus and distraction. The important thing, for a sabbath life, is to recognize the need for and places of rest. Rest can enter any space. Rest is breath. I can't think of rest without thinking of that contented, slow breath rhythm. When I think of breath; when I think of rest entering any moment, I think of the Spirit of God. In our rest, we attune ourselves to the Spirit breathing new life into our day.



What are some distractions in your life? What are some examples of things that can be "good for you" but also turn into distractions for you?

Pay attention to your day; whether focused or distracted, how is the Spirit entering into that space with the breath of new life? How has rest changed your day today?