No. 04 On Rest

We will never be less creative for becoming more human…

In July of 2020 we began keeping Sabbath. It turned out to be pretty disruptive to our normal way of life + I wouldn’t have initially categorized our lives as overly busy or chaotic. I would have said that we had pretty good work/life boundaries. As it turns out, trying to dedicate 24 hours to rest is more challenging than one might think.

I have been a chronic procrastinator for a long time. I think that’s frequently associated with creatives: “It’s really right up against a deadline that my creative juices get going!” or “I work better under pressure.” I have grown leaps + bounds since my all-nighters in high school, (mostly because it turns out even 31 is too old to function after staying up all night), but a lot of lingering habits had remained since then, resulting in last minute runs to the grocery store, scrambling to make plans, or rushing around the house an hour before the party to get it presentable.

Plenty of people get through life like this, but until we began Sabbath I didn’t realize how draining it actually is to be playing catch-up all the time. My time could be intruded on by whatever the urgent matter of the moment was, not to mention how much of it was sucked away by hours of mindless scrolling.

Learning to rest required placing a value on my time and myself. I had to realize my time was worth structuring to prevent it from being sucked away by the so-called-urgent + the mindless. Placing a value on me didn’t really click until we actually started sabbathing. There are so many other factors that have gone into that particular journey, but the thing that opened that door was resting without distraction.

Until we started Sabbath, I couldn’t tell you the last time that I was truly bored. Not “filling time with Instagram” bored, or “scrolling shows on Netflix without watching anything” bored, but honest to God, nothing to do, bored. Turning off your phone, feeling tired of reading, keeping the TV off; it turns out there is an enormous gift in that. The modern world is full of crap that helps us stay outside of ourselves + from connecting with other people. Intentionally creating a space where there is nothing to do but sit with yourself creates a space to hear from God + reconnect with our humanity. You get space to listen to yourself, which I had not done in a very long time. When we’re not distracted, the stuff we have stuffed + ignored gets to come to the surface. We will never be less creative for becoming more human + rest is the first place we get to sit with our humanity. It’s not always comfortable. Our first Sabbath was refreshing + amazing, probably because we needed it so badly. The next few were really unnatural + awkward to settle into. But keeping a value on it transformed the format of the rest of our week + has started a foundational transformation in us.

Since we built this whole thing around fostering creativity, let me share one last thought: we create out of our fullness, not our busyness. Having a hustle, grind, or litany of activity does not make you more creative; being human does. Setting aside time to rest + recharge fills the place that you create from. Your work will not suffer because you’re not busy enough. You won’t suddenly lose your drive because you stopped going a million miles an hour; you will begin to prioritize the things that really matter. We are so willing to invest in ourselves with equipment, lessons, software, conferences, anything, but invest in yourself with time + rest. Your creativity will flourish as you do.