The Art of Resting

“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.” —Agatha Christie; writer

My dear friend, Tasneem, has coined the phrase, “get-up muscle.” What it’s referring to is people’s ability to persevere in their life…to continue on…to get up and show up in life even when they are weary and burdened.

I love this phrase. When I started “Irrational Joy,” I began to work my get-up muscle both physically and spiritually. I started by working my core and lower back. Over the past few months my lower back had been very sore; even quite painful at times. It became clear that I needed to strengthen the muscles where the pain occurred. Unfortunately, my father suffers from terrible lower-back pain and injuries, which have greatly affected his mobility. With much sadness in my heart for his limitations, I couldn’t help but to see him as a mirror of my aged self. It promptly motivated me to take a few minutes each day to strengthen my core. Already I feel a noticeable difference.

Our “physical” core is what allows our bodies to get up from the horizontal position we sleep in to the vertical position we stand in. Plus, it’s what enables us to have balance. Our “spiritual” core is what keeps us motivated to get out of bed, whether we’re able-bodied or not. Without the spiritual get-up muscle, we got nothing.

Blogging each day is part of my training, just like the core exercises. It gets me going, thinking, connecting, reflecting, and finding joy. It helps me to slip into the gap…the place where we all come from…the bliss. However, the entire day doesn’t always feel so blissful. At least once a day, if not more, I begin to lose steam. I want to give up on this whole faith thing. I become petrified. I become doubtful and lose trust. I start to feel lost and alone.

But then the next day comes and I use my get-up muscle to keep going…and I don’t even have to face anything awful in my life, like the people in Haiti, except for unfulfilled work. But honestly, it’s enough to require my get-up muscle. I call on it every day, and every day, at some point, if not at multiple points, I experience the joy in living.

That’s what I love about today’s quote. It’s all encompassing and honest. How could we even begin to feel the depth of joy if we’ve never felt sorrow? How could we possibly know hope if we’ve never known despair?

All of us have a get-up muscle. We may or may not recognize it, but it’s there. Just like our core, we can choose to strengthen it, or not.

Do something today that strengthens your spiritual get-up muscle. The only requirement is that it feels good, inside.

Today, besides my blog entry, I choose to rest within. I don’t have to be ambitious today. I don’t have to be inspired. Today, I’m strengthening my get-up muscle by doing the exact opposite of what we do to strengthen our core muscles—I’m resting it. What a fabulous oxymoron.