FINDING REST: ONE

Hey Guys,

Happy New Month of May! I hope you are all keeping warm considering the rain has decided to go on and on this year. Today, I’ll be introducing a new segment of the blog that I’ve thought about for a long time coming and have finally decided to begin. This segment was originally going to be called ‘Finding Yellow’, and if you’ve been reading my blog since I started then you probably know why. If you’re new here, my first post here will bring you some clarity. A few months after I settled on this name however, I discovered Craving Yellow’s blog and decided against it despite the premise of our yellow being the same thing, Vincent Van Gogh. So earlier this year, I settled on ‘Finding Rest’, a segment where I’ll basically give a life update to you my readers: hopefully monthly.

Today’s introductory post will speak to the first quarter of this year. When this year begun, I was on such a high and this year, at the time, seemed like it would be everything I wanted it to be. So far, it hasn’t been a very smooth ride but as I mentioned in my last post, I’m learning to be gentle with myself, with my process of growth.

 

At the beginning of the year, 1 Peter 5:10 became my word for the year hence I coined this year, the year of rest- finding it, becoming it:

“But may the Lord of all grace, who called us to new eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you.”

Seeing as my first quarter has been tough with my heart and mind heavy, a lot of finding rest so far, has been in my physical space, in the little things. This heaviness, made it difficult to write and read as much I’d like so I intentionally found ways to find rest outside me. These are some of the ways I did:

• Meditating on scripture as well as words that affirmed the hope I needed and the strength I had to remember. At the beginning of the year, I downloaded an app called Sprinkle of Jesus. I absolutely love this app as it sends lots of affirmation throughout the day, which if you follow me on Instagram (@__littlebutterfly), then you’ve seen. The app also has very practical sermons from pastors all around the world. For a lot of this year, I’ve spent my lunch breaks listening to these sermons and the amount of lift you get in your spirit from barely fifteen minutes of these sermons, is great.

 

• Drinking lots of green tea and burning scented candles. This has slowly become a staple part of my night time routine and it has definitely improved my headspace before I sleep thereby bettering my sleep significantly. This has brought me not only physical rest but also mental rest at night, when my mind is usually most active.

 

• Pushing myself to socialize when I knew I needed to but didn’t want to. I’ve mentioned this on my Instagram before, but one of this year’s goals is to push myself out of my comfort zone when it’s good for me which, is almost always. This year, finding rest in laughter with friends during a night out I almost talked myself out of has happened severally.  Going out for that coffee or that event that I almost didn’t go for, has given me so much peace from happiness that I didn’t even know I needed.

 

• Buying flowers. Growing up, there were always fresh bouquets placed all over the house and now, this is also my form of self care, my form of rest.

 

• Listening to lots of music. Music has such strong healing power and since school’s been hectic for the most part of the last quarter, piano music has been a constant. I discovered a beautiful piano worship channel that is very calming and has been my go to whenever I need to listen to something uplifting. I highly recommend this channel if you’re in need of any peace and calm.

I hope you enjoy this new segment, learn some ways to find some rest in your personal life and feel free to share different ways you’ve been finding rest.

Be Kind and Be Courageous,

Michelle.