Today, I’m sharing with you how to implement rest in your business, and more specifically, how to do that on a faith based level.

This is a topic that I feel needs to be shouted from the rooftops. It is something that we all need to implement into our lives.

Let’s Dive Into REST!

I call myself a recovering workaholic. Always chasing after something to achieve. Going after the next big thing. I always have to have a project and I always have to be chasing after something. I got so used to this that I didn’t know how to get out of it. It continued for a LONG time. It was exhausting. I reached burnout. It’s dangerous. In the last year, I have really began to work on slowing down, resting, and re-energizing myself.

When’s the last time you plugged yourself in?

Yeah, I know… What a crazy thought. But, it’s where our next creative idea is going to come from. Before I really started to scale back and get my priorities in check, one thing I realized is that I failed to celebrate any achievement I ever made. And that is also a dangerous place to be because I never truly got to celebrate my successes and my achievements. I didn’t get to sit in them or dwell on them. I did not give myself or God any credit.any credit. Because of that I’m never going to feel satisfied.

After doing the mindset work, the heart work, and the Spirit work, I came to the conclusion that the one thing that was truly missing was implementing rest in my business. That is very hard to implement. The first time I tried, it felt more like torture than it did a gift. Then eventually, it started to feel like a gift.

Let’s take this back to the faith-based version. In the Bible, it says “On the seventh day God had completed his work that he had done. And he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy.” I remember thinking that doesn’t apply to me. That just sounds religious. I don’t need that. But the more that you study it, and the more that you realize we are humans, and we do need to charge our batteries. We do need to implement rest. Once I got past thinking it wasn’t for me, I started digging in.

In Mark, Jesus concludes, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

What does that mean for us today?

God knew we were going to get tired and that we were going to get exhausted. He also knew that it’s not just about the physical rest, but that we need to be able to look back on all that we have put our hands to and sit in it and honor it and honor God for it. I realize, I never took the time to celebrate it, to relish in it, to dwell on it and to feel good about it before moving on to the next thing.

God knew that we were going to need rest in our lives. All throughout the Bible we are given multiple examples of what the Sabbath looks like, what it can entail, and all of those things. I starting thinking how do I take one day out of every week, and turn it into a Sabbath?

For me, I don’t necessarily think that God is looking at us as and wondering why we didn’t take Sunday off. I think it’s a heart issue.
Are we honoring what we’ve done in our lifetime?
How are we honoring Him in that?
Are we giving ourselves the space to rest?

What does a Sabbath day or day of rest look like for me?

• Celebrate and Remember
  I do this in the form of journaling. I will write wins, praise reports, life circumstances, and if anything major happened. Sometimes it’s a loss. Sometimes it’s me grieving over something. But I want to remember it and look back at. Then I will pair it with some Bible reading and basically get myself into a zone of honoring, celebrating, and resting for the day.
• Surrender
  What I’ve decided for myself is I won’t do any social media or TV at all the whole day from sunup to sundown. I will not check my email. Absolutely no business activity. I will not communicate with clients, deliver galleries, edit, or take a session.
• Dwell in His Presence
  For me, this looks like taking a drive and blasting worship music or listening to some type of a faith based podcast. I will also spend time jumping into a Bible study.
• Do things that fill you with JOY
  At first this was hard. I had to think back on things that made me happy because I hadn’t really had time to do this when I wasn’t resting. I came up with a couple of things. Reading, listening to podcasts, and crafting are some things I love doing on my day of rest.

The very next day, I look back at what happened while I honored my Sabbath, day of rest. I will look what sales came through? Did I have anybody inquire? Did I have anybody book? You can see the business still went on without me. You’re not going to lose your business from taking one day a week, and disconnecting yourself from everything else. It’s not going to happen.

It doesn’t matter what day you choose. For some of you, you can only commit to a true half day. Everybody has a different scenario and situation. Remember, it’s a heart issue. It’s about recharging yourself.

Go implement rest into your business. Go honor God with what he’s done and what you’ve done. Just sit in the rest and watch how it changes your life and your business.

Now that you’ve heard how I implement rest in my business, come join the #1 community for photographers, Book More Photography Clients: Branding, Marketing, + Client Experience and share how you implement rest in your business.

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