Resting as a spiritual practice

(Nimue)

If you’re looking for a spiritual practice you can fit into a busy life, this is one of the best and most powerful choices you can make. Resting is good for your physical and mental health, and you need to be on top of that if you want to get the most out of a spiritual path. We’re embodied creatures, and respecting physical health and taking care of ourselves is, I would like to suggest, a good Druid practice for its own sake.

Resting is a way of spending time that has very little environmental impact. That’s a very good choice too. Your inactivity is of benefit to the planet, where activity may well not be. It’s an anti-capitalist choice that can give us the opportunity to escape from the pressures modern living causes and to take back more control of our lives.

We are mammals. It is in the nature of mammals to rest. Therefore resting is an excellent way of exploring nature as it manifests in your own body. Through rest you can connect with the lives of other animals, and empathise with them. You honour nature when you allow yourself to act naturally and when you respect nature within yourself.

Resting makes room for having ideas, so it can lead the way to inspiration. It also helps us process thoughts and feelings, which is often necessary to make space for meditation or prayer. Resting promotes calm, which in turn lends itself to spiritual work. Weariness can make us either apathetic or frantic, neither of which state is helpful.

Exhaustion makes everything worse, and harder, so tackling that first is a good investment for any kind of Druid work. Anything you might undertake as part of your Druidry is going to work better if you are well rested.

Slowing down allows to appreciate life more. The calmer we are and the more in control of our choices we feel, the more joyful our lives can be. Don’t let your Druidry feel like a weight you have to carry. Take care of yourself, and take the basics of wellness seriously and make that part of your path.