When animals in the forest get wounded, they find a place to lie down, and they rest completely, for many days. The don't think about food or anything else. They just rest, and get the healing they need. When we humans get sick, we just worry. We look for doctors and medicine, but we don't stop. Even when we go to the beach or the mountains for a vacation, we don't rest, and we come back more tired than before. We have to learn to rest.Just allow the body and mind to rest like an animal in the forest. Don't struggle. Our body and mind have the capacity to heal themselves if we allow them to rest.
Stopping, calming, and resting are preconditions for healing. If we cannot stop, the course of our destruction for healing will just continue.
I underlined this last night as I read "The Heart of Buddha's Teaching" by Thich Nhat Hanh
It hit home with this One Woman. Always difficult for her to sit and rest. When not feeling well she would not stop. Her thought "she would not give in to it." Oh, what a slow learner she has been.
She is very aware of what she underlined in this book - but for some reason - has not followed these instructions. She may be different from now on.
Hopefully you are smarter!!!
Have a wonderful day. It is raining in the woods.
14 comments:
True words for us to take to heart this morning. It is hard to slow down, stopping is even more difficult.
Most of us, of the boomer age, were told as children, to get up and go whether we felt like it or not.
My Dad told me not to lay in the bed and let the sun burn a hole in me. Get up and if I didn't have a job or anything to do, dig a hole and fill it up again.
And there you have it.
Wishing you a day that meets your needs.
Thank you for sharing!
Blessings.
Dear WM - you make me smile. I was raised the same way. I could never be spotted sitting or my love of reading. Had to always be moving.
Have a good day and "rest some" :)
Actually when I was at work, I would push to get through the day, but now that I have no schedule I have no problem lying down and resting...for a couple of days. After two days I start to go a little stir crazy, I will admit.
I'm not smarter, but like you I am learning. It's lightly snowing here this morning. Your orchid is beautiful, by the way.
Living on a farm, there was no time to lay down and rest during the day. Although I do remember, my Daddy always took a 20 minute nap after lunch, before returning to the fields. I find it difficult now to rest--I do not take an afternoon nap, like a lot of my friends do. I have to be really, really sick to lay down in bed during the day.
My grandfather was a lumber man....his words. He drove home for lunch everyday (it was dinner then, and at night it was supper). My point is though, that after eating he would lie down on the couch, go into a snoring sleep, and wake up 15 minutes later, ready to go back to work.....I guess it is balance...Work a little, rest a bit....
I find it harder to rest in the winter- now that is not right! In the summer I have no problem laying right down on my deck in the sunshine. So this winter I find myself doing more yoga poses and breathing - cutting off pains before they blossom into full blown issues. Sending blessings- thanks for such a thought provoking post-
Tabor, Sharon, Judy, Beverly and teri, thanks for visiting on this rainy day. Seems we all have something different to share.
I know I need to sit down more !!
such a hard lesson to learn and really embrace...I struggle with resting too...my body I can manage to rest, but resting my mind is a continuous process of learning and relearning...cultivating, I guess.
E,
I think you are wise! I could never take naps until the last few years, it is not so much physically I need the,
but the mental needs to stop, and lying down does help me do that.
Rest is the best healer for me, I have learned.
Hope you are having a restful, recuperative day:):
LauraX and Shannon - thanks for visiting.
This is an excellent concept to remember for everyone - not just those of us with Sjogren's syndrome! It took too many experiences with flares to realize that I wasn't doing my body any good by pushing through my tough times. My body tells me all I need to know. I just need to learn to listen....
I've always been more of a sitter, a reader than a doer. Outside exercise for me meant the reward of coming in. :<) I'm more for yoga than running.
Julia, you are right on target.
Nan - I need to be more like you.
I really push myself and it has to stop...
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