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SOULjourner,

I'm delighted you're here to understand more about your cyclical femininity in Sabbathing Rhythms—a rhythmic framework + methodology for your peace + pause + passions. But I can not give you a revelation of how that will look for you. However, with the help of the Spirit of Truth, you will be accompanied.

Sabbathing Rhythms - The Alternation of heARTwork + Rest (in 4-facets)

As a firstborn and mom of eight children on this earth, I like to get things done. However, what I'm repeatedly embracing + embodying is a sustainable approach to align with my biology + soul not only to get things done but to be rooted in my sacred wombmanhood.

We get to choose practices + processes that holistically nourish us in our heARTwork + rest. And I delight to help you elevate living in flow + pleasure through your holy being, writing and speaking.

It requires a lifestyle of honesty, curiosity, and alignment, which attunes us to hospitable, cyclical rhythms. Rhythms change at different stages of life, different phases of the month/moon whether you are still menstruating or not.

The scenic route of Sabbathing Rhythms is a back road (it's less traveled, so there's plenty of space for movement). This means there's plenty of room for you to explore + experiment + expand.

EXPLORE + EXPERIMENT + EXPAND

As we co-witness our new budding choices, we will also witness the new oppositions + resistance along the journey of syncing our feminine humanity with Sabbathing Rhythms. To be clear, the oppositions and resistance (internal + external) are revealers, notice their narrative as you engage in your unique Sabbathing Rhythms:

1. Daily Diversions + Decisions

2. Weekly Withdrawals + Woo

3. Monthly Moments + Meditation

4. Annual Abandonments + Attunement

These rhythms are rooted + grounded in our two unique biological clocks—our solar rhythm and our lunar rhythm. In part two, I awaken + guide you to go deeper into these celestial rhythms.

For now, know that these four facets of rest aren't merely about the absence of activity, or retreating yourself away from everyone (there is that), rather, it's about the noble recalibrating + redirection of activity—artform + advocacy = ARTvocacy.

heARTwork + Rest - One Entity

It's about the presence of intentional rest + worship (the Hebrew word "avad" is translated as either work or worship). Interestingly, worship + work are interchangeable. I found that to be extremely sobering when I first discovered it. In soul care, there is a healthy alternation between heARTwork + rest—they are one entity.

They do not impede each other; instead, they support each other. We are perpetually called and urged by the Beloved, Yeshua, to renew both our rest and heARTwork. There's holy integrity between heARTwork + rest in the making for healthy, wholehearted living (mistakes and all).

You/we are whole in the Beloved because you/we rest in fruition.

You/we are whole in self because you/we love in activity.

This shalom "wholeness" perspective requires a shift from linear to cyclical, from either/or to an integrative both/and paradigm—from self-sabotage to Sankofa—reclamation of provisional inheritance, which welcomes us HOME to our sacred + sensual SOULbriety.

Sensual SOULbriety is a Gift

Sensual SOULbriety helps us to nourish + optimize our energy, not hemorrhage it.

After all, this whole Sabbathing Rhythms journey is about awakening to the reality that the true self, the new self has inherited deep soul rest as a royal + priestly birthright. This reality affects every square inch of our rest + our heARTwork.

Rest is one of those expressions revealing what's happening internally (our being) and externally (our doing). Our being and our doing are distinct; yet, they are earnestly attached. We shouldn't distance them. This is where soul care + self-care rituals emerge and are embodied—elevated.

We all engage rituals. But many of our rituals center around a chronic cycle of excessive doing, especially doing all the things for others while bypassing one's own humanity.

SOULjourner, in order to flourish, you must nourish yourself and rest from watering another's garden to be the garden that gets watered.

Pastoral Counsel: Soul care is related to self-care in that they both invite you to notice + nurture + embody your belovedness—your worthiness. This freedom is yours in your present body to help you protect your heart as peace (shalom) protects YOU.

Self-care is the holy priority + audacity to give TO yourself as much as you give OF yourself. Soul Care is the all-encompassing nurture of the soul (nephesh, "breath", "spirit" in Hebrew) — you are a soul — the soul is the whole of the person, the unity of the body, organs, and breath. It is not some immaterial spiritual entity, it is you, all of you, your whole being or self.

Did you know that to audaciously reimagine + regroup + simplify + slow down + ask for help and dare to do less is a form of soul care + self-care? There's more to it than pampering oneself (there's that), but there's so much more—it’s about sustenance + sustainability in the sacred service of love for thyself from the inside out.

Instead of working against your bountiful biology, you get to align your biology + calendar with your monthly cycle (again, even if you are no longer shedding/bleeding physically—spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, you shed/bleed). Ponder that.

The mindset shift all begins and is informed by abundance.

Pause and consider the narrative around the word abundance. Notice the sensations in your body. Nurture your emotional responses. And embody a compassionate response of abundance. Because there is no lack, even if there is loss. Ponder that.

Otherwise, you'll operate from scarcity. This is deficit-informed. When you choose to operate out of deficit, you will surely internalize negative results + negative payoffs, believing that the experiences are your assigned embodied reality.

Ponder that, sis.

We have such an acute awareness of lack + loss, we become conditioned to loiter around its districts more than the pathways of abundance.

Abundance awakens us to the invitation to put on our oxygen mask, first—without guilt.

The Destination

To be clear, your destination for soul care and self-care is not a place; instead, your destination is a Person, Love. This is the root system. I believe Yeshua/Jesus is Love.

He shows us a more reliable way to sojourn in His love + teachings from the inside out.

When we pace ourselves with a more loving road map, deeply rested souls discover how to live in a sacred deconstruction of the false narrative of grind, while courageously rebuilding in the liberation of grace + truth with faith, hope, and love in view.

The fertile ground of faith, hope, and love in the Beloved assures you that your rest is hardwired. You NEVA have to earn or negotiate what is already yours. Ponder that.

To trust the resources that rest brings us is to trust that the Sustainer has placed our sustainability and sustenance in it. Besides, God gets no glory from you grinding your humanity down or you allowing others to grind it down to get noble things done in less-than-noble ways.

It is a moment-by-moment grace over grind audacity. Grace is additive + expansive, not off and on + linear. Exhale & Breathe that in, sis.

Rest is Blessed

The blessings of rest are connected to the rhythms of rest. Rhythms include personal and communal patterns. All patterns include resting points, whether we’re referring to music, dance, poetry, art, or otherwise, rhythms must integrate rest.

Rhythms affect your balance, but balance isn't the aim. Balance is a by-product of a healthy alignment of your entire being. You can stop the chase of balance, and rest in rhythms.

As mentioned earlier, it is helpful for you to remember and acknowledge the priority of rehearsing personal + communal rhythms.

Solitude and solidarity are in harmony, both must be cultivated. However, we must avoid the subtlety of relying upon Sabbath Rhythms as if they’re our Sustainer (they are not).

It is enough for us to rest in Yeshua having been in perfect rhythm with His redemptive purpose and to have accomplished all of His "To-Do's" entirely. This is good news because we get to deeply rely on Him in the unpredictability of our day-to-day lives. Furthermore, it's essential to keep in mind all of the "To-Done's and Ta-Da’s” of grace.

What the Beloved has done for you will inform you of your "To Be" and unburden you of your "Not To Be" and your "Not To Do." Everything is not for you. And some things are for you in incremental stages and in different phases.

The thing that's most encouraging + empowering about the sabbathing lifestyle is that it's about freedom, not about performance—it deeply affects how you rhythmically engage (or disengage). However, freedom is about untangling yourself from a life controlled by performative + pressure-cooked living.

The embodiment of freedom is a Person devoted to revealing to us the rhythms of freedom unique to each of our lives, whether we're addressing an audience, up at 4 a.m. feeding a baby, blogging, journaling, homeschooling, playing Fruit Ninja, taking a nap, grocery shopping, praying, tending to plants, making love, operating a business, basking outdoors, or browsing shelves at the library or bookstore.

And before you argue that putting on your soul care oxygen mask is a luxury or a far-fetched idea, think again. There is a healing alternative to a more tender, guilt-free paradigm that offers you SOULutions into a vibrant inner life that ebbs + flows—even as you shift from the obsession of what you "should" be doing to who you are as a "soul"—a sacred human being human in all the twists + turns.

You get to curate + cultivate the kind of life that savors living, not merely making a living.

It simply takes redefining what our version of "peace", "work-play", "nurture" + "rest" look like. When the Most had finished the work of creation, the Divine blessed creation as an expression of celebration healing (repair) and restoration.

Thankfully, celebration is an expression of attending to your soul, and this is a blessing that repletes you. Essentially, Sabbathing Rhythms address where you abide in love and where you can recharge from all of your giving + nurturing others — it's preventative + therapeutic.

Sabbath Lifestyle

We've been ushered into a Sabbath lifestyle because of the Lord of the Sabbath. A sabbathing lifestyle is to be acknowledged + enjoyed—REST—a noble redirection of energy + attention.

Honoring the Sabbath lifestyle will look different for many. It's significant to remember that this is all within the context of a relationship and not a rule—rhythm, not rigidity.

If this is new to you, or you're looking to expand into new aspects of a more cyclical, contemplative life approach, we're not aiming for perfection and we're certainly not talking about abstract, expensive, or complicated things. We're aiming for alignment, simplicity, connection and congruency.

So before you look at what's missing, notice the current sabbathing rhythms in your life (what are some of your rituals around rest + pleasure?): Pause to ponder.

Pause to ponder, rest taker.

The Perfect One Over Perfection

The Sabbathing Rhythms are not about arriving at perfection, they are about noticing how the Perfect One, arrives in our daily lives to draw out Divine love in the best and in the worst of circumstances (and everything in between).

To go deeper and wider, I lay out more details in part two.

A word of caution: Sabbathing Rhythms aren't meant to be prescriptive or formulaic. They are meant to guide you into deeper trust and celebration. This is so key for many who view the hustle + grind mindset as a virtue and can't imagine giving themselves permission to integrate rest into their lives. Sis, there's a better way.

To prepare for part two, let's begin to consider the following "be kind" baby steps:

Be kind.

Take care of yourself. Receive the gift of being YOU.

Be kind.

Examine yourself in light of patience over performance.

Be kind.

Focus on one thing. Don't become overwhelmed by allll the suggestions. This is an incremental work-play.

Be kind.

Imagine what's beyond surviving + trust that you can Thrive.

Be kind.

This is a form of healing your joy + experiencing liberation + justice.

Reordering the way you holistically view liberation + justice to embody it isn't a pass or fail. You have new freedom choices you can make but beware of the opposition and resistance you're likely to meet on this journey from within and from without.

This is a very counter-cultural approach (sadly, even in the faith community). So if you've been stewing in a scarcity mindset of too little, and serving others at the expense of your shalom, you'll first unlearn many things in order to lean into the shalom-making reality of Sankofa healing within Sabbathing Rhythms.

Together, we reclaim (Sankofa) our lives from harmful burdens that are at best, limiting self-nurture + self-compassion, and at worst defrauding us through grinding down our holy humanity. Chiiile, we too free for that!

Sabbathing Rhythms will invite us to be soft + tender as we savor our divinely-infused lives.

May we personally + collectively...

Rest. Reimagine. Reclaim. Respond.

Until next time,

Scribble. Speak. From your soul.

Links for further discovery

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Subscribe & Listen to my Soul Care Podcasts

Nurturing Sabbathing Rhythms Part II

LEAVE A COMMENT: What is your view of cyclical, rhythmic soul care and self-care in your life?

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