Rest is the fuel for healing.

I often describe myself as a triple Type A personality. Constantly on the move, being productive, trying to accomplish more than is reasonably possible. As a teenager, my family nicknamed me Blitz because I just blitzed here, blitzed there, and blitzed everywhere!
But one day, I woke up to the harsh reality that I couldn’t sustain my level of productivity any longer because I had not stopped long enough to restore the energy I had depleted. I could still be busy, but I couldn’t produce the way I once had.
I think all of us resist the human limitations that rub up against our ideals of what we think we should be able to accomplish. For me, that journey has been ongoing. Along the way, I have learned the value of rest in healing and restoring. And while I still don’t do it perfectly, I am excited to share with you how you can enhance your own healing journey by learning to rest!
The Science of Rest and Healing
Rest is essential for healing to take place, both physically and mentally. Rest allows the body to repair and regenerate with most of this happening while we are sleeping. Rest also helps the immune system to strengthen and respond effectively to illness or injury. Rest reduces the mental strain that can accumulate from the challenges of daily life. This quieting of the mind improves focus, emotional balance, and the ability to make decisions with clarity.
When we rest, our stress hormone, cortisol, begins to decline. Cortisol levels increase under stress, leading to anxiety, poor sleep, hormone irregularities, and fatigue. Intentional rest—whether through sleep, spending time in nature, or simply pausing from daily demands—restores balance and calms the nervous system. Over time, this strengthens our ability to cope with future stress. A peaceful heart and mind are not just beneficial for health but also allow us to engage more fully with those we love.
Studies reveal the significant impact of ignoring rest. For example, research has shown that individuals who sleep fewer than six hours a night are more likely to experience illness compared to those who sleep seven to eight hours. Additionally, mental exhaustion from overwork without breaks has been linked to higher rates of burnout, anxiety, and depression. This isn’t just in the workforce but also moms at home, managing a relentless load of responsibilities and expectations. These findings remind us that rest isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity. Embracing rest is not only an act of self-care but also an act of obedience, trusting that God’s design for our bodies includes a rhythm of work and rest.
Barriers to Rest: Why We Struggle to Slow Down
Our culture glorifies productivity to the detriment of rest. The pressure to defy expectations in what we accomplish, how we live, and how our children excel in knowledge and experience leaves no room for rest. There is an unspoken badge of honor for busyness. The busier you are, the more accomplished you must be.
Our culture resists rest unless it is an exotic vacation. We experience implied guilt and shame when we stop our frenetic doing and rest in the moment. Why? Because we feel guilty that we might be wasting time and shame because we internalize our lack of productivity equates with a lack of value. We don’t feel that we deserve the rest until our to-do list is accomplished. Rebekah Lyons says in her book, Rhythms of Renewal that “rest precedes blessing. We don’t have to run to earn rest; we run fueled by a posture of rest.”
As you juggle many responsibilities and demands, I encourage you to familiarize yourself with the symptoms of overwhelm and burnout that come when rest is ignored. Common symptoms include constant exhaustion, irritability, emotional instability, or feeling overwhelmed by even small tasks. Physical signs, such as frequent headaches, weakened immunity, or trouble sleeping, are also frequent. Spiritually, a lack of rest can lead to difficulty finding joy in prayer, reading Scripture, or serving others, ultimately leaving us feeling disconnected from God. These warning signs are a call to pause, reflect, and prioritize rest—not as an indulgence but to honor God’s design for balance and renewal in our lives.
My Favorite Strategy to Prioritize Rest for Healing
When clients come to me overwhelmed with life and experiencing anxiety and irritability, hormone concerns, and never-ending fatigue, I begin teaching them ways to rest by taking control of their lifestyle instead of being a victim to our culture’s demands. This can be challenging and requires a change in our mindset.
One of my favorite ways to begin implementing rest is with a 30-minute break during your day. Schedule this time on your calendar and make it non-negotiable! I recommend this in the middle of your day because it will provide energy to finish your day strong!
Here’s how I recommend doing this 30-minute break:

Turn off electronics and silence your phone to prevent disruptions.
Set a timer for 30 minutes so you aren’t constantly checking the time.
Have a blank piece of paper and pen nearby. When thoughts of the next thing you need to do come to mind, jot it down and then forget about it. This is time to rest, not to worry about remembering your to-do list! You will have your notes after your break is done.
Choose any activity that is rejuvenating or relaxing. This might be a nap or taking a bath, reading a book, creating something, taking a walk, playing with your pet, or anything else you feel refreshed doing. One of my favorite ways to rest is adult coloring. Don’t be surprised if you struggle at first to find things refreshing. But continue to experiment with different activities, and your list will begin to grow.
When the 30 minutes are done, set aside your activity until the next day and notice the improvement in your mood, energy, and thinking as you engage in the rest of your responsibilities for the day.
Note: if you have napping children, take these 30 minutes near the beginning of their nap. You will likely be extra productive afterward during the rest of their nap! If you have children old enough to not nap, establish the same 30 minutes as rest time for them. Have a special basket of activities that they can do on their own during that time. This basket should contain items and projects that they look forward to and anticipate doing.

There are many other ways to incorporate rest into your life, but this is one of my favorites!
In the Bible, Jesus invites the disciples after a day so busy that they didn’t have time to eat to “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” (Mark 6:31) Jesus recognized the exhaustion the disciples were feeling. They were trying to meet all the needs and expectations without taking a break. Many of us can relate to the disciples. Because of our demanding culture, we need to be reminded to rest.
Creating a rhythm of rest in your day will take time and the trialing of different activities. Be patient with yourself as your body and mind acclimate to the much-needed rest. At first it may feel disorienting, and you may have a hard time spending more than a few minutes resting. But over time, your body will begin to anticipate and heal in these moments of rest.
If you would like to learn more about rest and the role it plays in your healing journey of your mood, fatigue, and hormones, I invite you to schedule a free call with me. Don’t journey alone!

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Why the News Is Wearing You Out (And It's Not Your Imagination)

By Rachel Rauch • September 8, 2026

Do you ever feel like life is moving faster than you can keep up with? I do. So I went digging into the history of how news actually traveled, and it turns out I wasn't imagining things. Life really has sped up. Let me walk you through it, because it explains more about your body than you'd think. In 1776, news moved at the speed of a horse or a ship, and sometimes slower than the war it was reporting on. The Treaty of Ghent was signed in December 1814, but it took six weeks to cross the Atlantic. Andrew Jackson fought the Battle of New Orleans two weeks after the war it belonged to had already ended. The telegraph closed that gap. The Associated Press started in 1846, when five New York papers pooled money for a courier-and-telegraph relay to beat each other on Mexican-American War news. By the 1870s, the AP wire was the backbone of newspapers coast to coast. When the first working transatlantic cable went in in 1866, European news reached city readers by the next morning. Rural readers, stuck waiting on the mail train, stayed weeks behind. Radio and television took over in the 20th century, still riding on the AP wire underneath. Overseas footage could reach American living rooms the same day. Cable news pushed that down to real time — by September 11, 2001, people watched history happen live instead of waiting for the evening broadcast. Today the lag is seconds, and the source is usually a stranger's phone, not a newsroom. Wire services and reporters still do the actual digging, but social platforms and algorithmic feeds decide what you see first, and they usually beat professional verification to the punch. Speed isn't the problem anymore. Knowing what's true before you share it is. Here's what that means closer to home. A woman in 1776 spent her day on what was in front of her: feeding her family, supporting the war effort locally, running her house. Her stress was real, but she wasn't carrying Africa's wars or Asia's famines on top of it, because by the time that news arrived, it was already over. Even through World War II, women served their cause by investing in their own community. Worldwide events they couldn't touch were, for the most part, not part of their daily awareness. And when they were, it came through black-and-white photos and print — sterile, one step removed. Even the six o’clock news felt at a distance most nights. Social media changed that. Now a plea to save trafficked children and a plea to save dying coral reefs show up back to back in the same scroll. We watch villages in Africa pillaged by rebels, children starving as civil wars tear countries apart, cities flattened by earthquakes and wildfires — all shot on the phones of people living through it in real time. Every influencer has a cause, and plenty of them want you to feel something urgent enough to act, whether that's guilt, outrage, or a call to fix something four thousand miles away. I'm not minimizing what any generation before us dealt with. I'm giving you context for what makes ours different. When women in earlier generations felt worried, they could point that adrenaline at something in front of them and actually do something about it. Now, every time we watch a crisis unfold somewhere we have no power to change, our body still releases the same stress hormones it always has — as if we were about to step into that crisis ourselves. Except we can't. Your body doesn't know the difference between a threat in your kitchen and a threat on your screen. It reacts the same way either time. And it's not just the news — it's the constant hum of social media running in the background of your day, quietly keeping your body braced for something it will never actually need to respond to. That's a real cost. It pulls from the same reserves your body needs for the stress you can't avoid. If you're anxious most of the time, short-tempered in a way you don't like, sleeping poorly, or dealing with digestive issues that won't resolve, social media and the news cycle may be part of what's driving it. Try a sabbatical — no social media, no podcasts, no news, even for a few days. Let your brain settle. Let your attention come back to what's actually in front of you, and notice whether your body feels different. When you're ready to bring news back in, I'd point you to The Pour Over. It's non-partisan, comes with Scripture and prayer built in, and delivers everything in short pieces — enough to stay informed without getting pulled into the emotional undertow of events you have no way to change.

Nothing Is Certain Except Death, Taxes, and How Your Body Handles Uncertainty

By Rachel Rauch • August 25, 2026

You've probably heard the line, "Nothing is certain except death and taxes." It's usually attributed to Benjamin Franklin, who wrote it to the French scientist Jean-Baptiste Le Roy — expressing his own anxiety about not hearing from Le Roy for over a year during the chaos of the French Revolution. Every era has its uncertainty. But is it just me, or does the world feel more uncertain lately? Maybe it's the upcoming midterm elections. Maybe it's the unrest in the Middle East. Maybe contagious viruses just feel more ominous since COVID. And then the news serves up one terrible headline after another that I wasn't even thinking about until I read it. Maybe current events barely register for you, but you still struggle to feel safe because of something that happened to you, or to someone you love. It's hard to feel certain about anything after what you've been through. If that's you, I am truly sorry, and I lament with you in that! Here's what's actually happening in your body: uncertainty triggers the same stress response as a real physical threat. You have a small gland in your brain called the amygdala, and it interprets ambiguity the same way it interprets danger. Your body responds accordingly — racing heart, shallow breathing, sweating, blood rushing to your limbs. At the same time, the amygdala suppresses your prefrontal cortex, which slows your thinking and makes it harder to make decisions or regulate your emotions. Live in that state long enough, and it becomes an allostatic load on your body: chronically elevated cortisol, a suppressed immune system, more inflammation, reduced digestive capacity, and hormones out of balance. You might also notice more anxiety, more fatigue, and everyday tasks feeling like more than you can carry. I wish we could avoid uncertainty. I think you do too. We are finite people held in the hands of an infinite God. Some days I catch myself thinking that if my life had no uncertainty, I'd be less stressed. Deep down, though, I know that's not true. No uncertainty would mean I'd know everything — including every scary thing headed my way — and that would stress me out more, not less. So if uncertainty isn't going anywhere, how do we keep it from wrecking our bodies? Limit your knowledge. I know that sounds backward. We have the whole internet in our pockets, and we can watch the news unfold in real time. But most of what we're consuming is about things we can't control or influence. That turns knowledge into a burden. Cut back on the things you have no say in, and focus on what's local and within your reach. Cut your social media scroll. Comparison breeds "what if" thinking and discontentment. And the algorithms are tracking every half-second pause in your scroll, then feeding you more of exactly what stirs up your uncertainty. Build a budget and stick to it. A budget lets you plan for what you need and prepare for the unexpected. It slows the kind of spending that feeds on uncertainty. Cut back on caffeine and other stimulants. They stack extra stress hormones on top of what your body is already producing, keeping you stuck in an activated, wound-up state. Write down reminders of God's faithfulness — put them where you'll see them. When Moses handed leadership over to Joshua, right before Joshua had to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land, Moses gave him this: "It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed." — Deuteronomy 31:8 (ESV) Joshua was afraid. Moses didn't hand him a plan — he reminded him who was going ahead of him. We can hold onto that same reminder. Ask if there's a deeper root to your uncertainty. Is there a past event, or a pattern, feeding what you feel now? That can be a loaded question, and it's often easier to sort through with a counselor or therapist who can help you connect what happened then to what you're carrying now. Uncertainty isn't going away. But we don't have to just absorb it. We can be strategic about how we handle it, and about lightening the stress load it puts on our bodies.