Rest
Written By Jessie Thompson, LMSW, LCSW Lasting Peace Counseling
Have you ever opened your laptop, excited to shop online, write your blog, or check the weather—only to discover the battery is nearly dead? Or maybe you’re about to join an important online meeting and suddenly every app requires an “update,” or worse, the entire computer needs to restart at the very last minute.
Is it just me, or does that always seem to happen when you’re already running late?
The obvious solution is simple: plug it in and let it charge. You tell yourself, This will never happen again. Next time you’ll be proactive. You’ll charge your computer overnight and make sure all the updates are downloaded before the workday begins. That way, whenever you need it, it’s ready to go—fresh, quick, and able to produce the results you need.
But how often do you apply this same principle to your own life?
How often do you allow your body, soul, and mind to run on empty? And secondly, how often do you “plug in” and recharge? If you’re like the average American, the answer to the second question is: almost never. Here’s how we know that is true.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, nearly one-third of adults will experience anxiety at some point in their lives. About 20 percent of adults will struggle with anxiety this year alone, along with nearly 30 percent of adolescents. Anxiety also appears to occur about twice as often in women as in men. Among young adults, however, anxiety rates are rising for both genders.
Sleep statistics tell a similar story. In 2023, younger women reported the lowest rates of adequate sleep, with only 27 percent saying they get enough rest. Younger men reported 46 percent, older women 44 percent, and older men were the most likely to get adequate sleep at 51 percent.
Furthermore, we are seeing more and more about hormonal disruption—puberty beginning earlier, menopause starting sooner, and a society that is increasingly reactive rather than responsive.
In other words, we are tired and wired. We are irritable. We are anxious. We feel overwhelmed. And yet we keep pushing forward anyway.
These symptoms are alarm bells telling us something is not right. How does this all connect? If you’ve followed any of my previous blogs or have been in counseling with me, you’ve probably heard me talk about the brain’s stress response system. If not, here’s the bottom line: the brain is designed first and foremost for survival. Everything else such as learning, loving, connecting, or creating is secondary.
This means all day, whether we realize it or not, our brains are constantly scanning the environment for danger. If a threat is detected, the amygdala (also called the brain’s alarm system) sends signals throughout the body by releasing hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones increase heart rate, sharpen the senses, and open the lungs’ airways, preparing the body to either fight the threat or run away.
This system is incredible when we truly need it. When actual danger is real and immediate. If an animal were chasing us, if we lived in a war zone, or if a train were about to hit us, this response would save our lives.
But the reality is that most of us are not living in war zones. Most of us have access to food, shelter, heating or air conditioning, and relative safety. Yet day after day in the counseling room, I hear how many people are living as if they are under constant threat. People are living on the edge of their seats. They cannot sleep. They feel one step away from emotional collapse. Their internal “containers” are completely full which leaves no room for flexibility when life inevitably throws small stressors their way, like a child melting down over the wrong color hair tie.
So why do our bodies respond as if we are living in a war zone? Why does daily life trigger the same biological alarms designed for life-threatening danger?
The pace of modern life is one reason. We are living at a speed our souls were never meant to sustain. Information reaches us every second of the day. News alerts, weather updates, social media, texts, emails, phone calls—all arriving at once. At the same time, we are trying to raise families, maintain careers, attend school, keep our homes running, manage finances, schedule medical appointments, care for children or aging parents, and stay on top of taxes, home repairs, and vehicle maintenance.
I’ve joked in my own home that managing finances alone can feel like a full-time job.
And that’s just the baseline.
We haven’t even mentioned those who are also carrying the weight of childhood trauma, chronic illness, grief, abusive relationships, addiction, or other deep hardships. Life can be incredibly heavy.
Biologically speaking, our brains interpret these pressures as threats. Our bodies respond by releasing a cascade of stress hormones: adrenaline, cortisol, glucocorticoids, catecholamines, growth hormone, and prolactin, among others. These hormones were designed to be released briefly during moments of danger—not continuously, not habitually, and certainly not as a daily baseline. When they remain elevated for long periods of time, the results affect everything: our physical health, our emotional well-being, and our relationships with others.
Our bodies were designed to experience stress and then rest. But at the pace we are living, many of us never reach the rest.
The spiritual reasons for this are also significant. At the root of human struggle is the story of the fall. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were given everything they needed. Yet they were tempted by the serpent with the possibility of having even more. God gave them one boundary: do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But temptation won, and they ate from the very tree they were commanded to avoid (Genesis 3:6). Since that moment, sin has woven itself into every corner of the human story. Generations of choices—our own and others’—have shaped a world filled with hardship, illness, suffering, and brokenness.
But please keep reading, because the last thing I want you to walk away with is the idea that we are doomed.
There is another spiritual truth worth remembering. God has paved a way. Not only from sinful consequences through the powerful death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but also through His leading and teachings. There is so much to unpack there, but for the sake of this topic, we are going to look at this one part of God’s character:
God Himself rested.
After six days of creation forming the heavens, the earth, the seas, the plants, the animals, and humanity, God stopped and rested.
“On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all work of creation- Genesis 2:2-3, (NLT).
So, what does this look like practically? How do we begin when our lives already feel so full? Remember this: the solution is not to do more, it is to do less. Phew. What a relief.
Just like your laptop, you were never designed to run on empty. You were created to plug in, recharge, and be sustained by a power source outside of yourself. God calls this rest Sabbath. And it is more than just stopping, it is reconnecting to God. Drawing near to Him. Abiding in Him.
Jesus says in John 15:1, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.”
He goes on to explain that we (the people) are the branches.
If a branch is disconnected from the vine, what happens? It withers. It dies. It does not produce fruit. Not because it wasn’t trying hard enough, but because it was disconnected from its source.
The same is true for us. If we are not connected to Jesus, we slowly lose the nourishment our souls desperately need. We cannot produce good fruit on our own strength. We cannot outwork exhaustion. We cannot hustle our way into peace. We have to plug in. And yes, this can feel scary. I have been there myself too many times to count.
Taking a day to rest can feel irresponsible when there is so much to do. Sabbath requires faith. It means trusting that God will provide, even when we step away. It includes trusting that what we produce from a place of rest will be far more fruitful than what we force from a place of depletion.
If taking an entire day of Sabbath feels overwhelming, begin small. Rest is like a muscle, if you haven’t used it, it will feel uncomfortable at first. But over time, it grows stronger. Start with one hour. Pick a day where you don’t have to be anywhere and intentionally set aside that time to rest. No productivity. No catching up. No media or technology (sorry, doom scrolling and vegging out on T.V. are NOT forms of rest). Just presence. With God. With yourself. With your people.
Then slowly build. One hour becomes two. Two becomes a morning. A morning becomes a rhythm. Before you know it, rest is no longer something you try to do and it becomes part of who you are. As you begin to rest, something powerful happens: Your body starts to believe it is safe. That constant flood of stress hormones begins to settle. Your nervous system quiets. Your mind clears. Your heart softens. This is where healing begins. God knew what He was doing when he created you. Those symptoms are a gift, an alarm signal that you need Him to sustain you.
Want to take it a step further to communicate safety to your body? Each day (not just your rest days) you can start incorporating these practices:
Box Breathing (aka combat breathing) - slow, intentional even breaths in and even breaths out tell your brain you are okay.
Body awareness – Where in your body are you feeling tension? Linger, notice and practice giving this stress to God.
Gratitude – what we focus on grows. Gratitude and anxiety/stress cannot exist in the brain at the same time.
Pausing – even one minute can interrupt the stress cycle (the One Minute Pause app is a great place to start)
Counseling- If you are experiencing more than the daily stressors of life (childhood trauma, any form of abuse including spiritual, PTSD), these practices will still help you. However, the trauma you are carrying will continue to override the alarm system until you have addressed the root cause of your body’s distress. Counseling with a licensed mental health practitioner is a great way to peel back the complex layers of unhealed trauma.
Remember, the goal is not perfection (which does not exist anyway). It is presence. It is a connection. It is abiding. Sustenance for your soul. Because the truth is, the world will always demand more from you. There will always be another email, another load of laundry, another responsibility waiting.
But your soul? Your soul is asking for something different.
John Eldredge writes “…the world demands a life saturated with activity, but our souls were created for a life saturated with God.”
Stay connected to the Vine. And watch what grows.
