Feeling tired? Exhausted? Burnout? The things you do keeps piling up one after another? And you just have zero energy to do them? Oh, count me in. You are not the only one. So let me write something to calm the weary mind, heart, and soul.

The rain falls slowly from the night sky. All I hear are the crickets and the soulful music coming from my earphones. There are no people around aside from us staying overnight and the employee on the rounds. This is a rare moment of silence, of peace. For months since the last getaway I had, life moved in many ways I wasn’t expecting – or anyone could ever. The life in the city requires so much of me and my energy – my work, my personal life goals, family, relationships, and the new direction I am taking in life. There is just so much to work on, plan for, and take on as it gets by. I have shared quite a lot in this blog how I struggled with my career, and I am at this point in my life that I am taking a new direction for it. I don’t know if you can relate with me but there is just so much hustle I do after setting new goals in my life. And as I move forward towards these goals everything else that’s been in my life already moves with it. Before I could even realize I reached my limit. I strived hard but missed one of the most important things as I go along. Rest. Don’t get me wrong hustling is good, especially if you’re the kind of person that lives for it. But at one point in our daily lives we reach a certain point of hitting a wall or falling off a cliff or a mental blockage or just draining energy.

I have this theory. We have 24 hours a day to live everyday. And every day we experience different kinds of tiredness and exhaustion. We are faced in different situations in our daily lives whether it’s good or bad that requires our energy, emotions, intellect, and inner selves. My theory is that, at the moment we wake up depending on the condition of our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual state we can either be at 100% energy or at 30%. And as each day goes by it can either decrease or increase depending on how we respond to the daily factors that can affect our energies and mental state. I was at my 100% when I was starting to venture in a new career path. I’m trying to involve in new things and learn. And that is one of the beauty of new discoveries. There is a different drive in you that pushes you to go on. I even came to a point of saying, “it’s okay to make mistakes along the way. It’s part of the journey. It’s part of growing and you keep on learning from it.” It is a new challenge for me, more likely a risk to take. We are talking about a life changing moment guys. It’s a career we are talking about. Or maybe it’s just me that feels this way. But as days goes by, what I thought I was living at a 100% energy I was actually running low. You see that battery percentage on the top of your phone’s screens? Our daily energy and state of mind is like that. We are either fully charged, almost charged,  partially charged or completely forgot to charged so it’s at its end. I experienced new challenges everyday in different areas of my life to a point that I neglect to charge myself. Again, neglect. I must admit there were a couple of times my body asks of me to chill out and slow down the hustle a bit. And in this season of pandemic extra attention and care to our physical, mental and emotional healths must be given. At some point I did slow down, like hitting snooze for 5 minutes when the alarm goes off. But in most parts for the past months my mindset was, “no time must be wasted.” Later this week I reached a mental blockage. I had a lot of things to do and work on, things to plan for and prepare for, one after another they keep coming at me. And then I hit a wall. I don’t know where to begin and I can’t think, I don’t have the energy to think and process. I was at 10% and hitting the power-saving mode. The power-saving mode can only help us do more with the remaining energy our phone has before it reaches 0%. This week felt like I was holding on to that percentage the power-saving mode can give me before this very day I was able to recharge. I was at work feeling afloat of doing my tasks, I was at home having zero energy to do my chores and unleft to-do’s for the day, I don’t even have the energy to eat, it feels like I’m sleeping but my mind is running and I’m restless when I wake up. So my point exactly from this is, never neglect the time to rest. The time to rest your mind from all its worries. The time to rest your body from its toil everyday. The time to free yourself from the negative energy that affects you. The time to reflect on your small wins in life.

Let me share something from my reflections of this time of rest.

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.
What do people really get for all their hard work? I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.
Ecclesiastes 3:1, 9‭-‬11 NLT

As God is a God of order in our lives, He puts order in every single thing we di with it. Just as how He said in the following verses in Ecc. 3:2-8. There is a time to work and hustle but there is also value in the time of resting. And what I value the most at this time of rest is finding simple joys in small successes. I have this time to reflect on my progress in reaching my new set of goals. I have the opportunity to take in and process how far I’ve come at this point. It may not be near but to have the attitude of appreciating the gifts and grace of God along the way is far more precious. I wouldn’t be anywhere near I am now apart from Him. Sometimes when we neglect to rest and pause and actually be grateful for the little things happening in our everyday lives we are not only compromising our healths but also missing out the great values of life like appreciating the people around that helped you in your journey, the time that you can also spend for these people is irreplaceable. And when I hit that wall where I don’t know what to do next or what to do first I was reminded of this,

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:33 ESV

Sure I’m guilty as charged. I realized it’s not just involving God in all the things you do. It’s putting God first above all the things you do. I have to be reminded quite often of this. In moments like I just had, sometimes God allowed it to be reminded of not forgetting Him as I go along in life. I can actually never go along on my own to be honest, if it’s not by the grace and strength that He gives me each day.  He says as we seek Him first and His kingdom all the things we ask, according to His will, will be added. I was asking for direction. What should I do first from all the things that’s been given infront of me? A simple response of seeking Him first. He could give me the direction if He wanted to but my heart may be led far from Him if I went on my own and forget to actually seek Him first. I wouldn’t get to appreciate and value more the things and my progress right now, even my relationship with Him if I just received my direction without seeking Him. But again, God is a God of order. And He is true to His word. As I end this writing, my simple sticky note for myself, and if it relates you, then it’s for you too, a time to rest is never a time wasted. A well-rested mind, heart, body, and soul launches you to do more of what you’ve done yesterday.