I recently took my teenage son to get a haircut at my “fancy” hair salon. He’s in that teenage stage where he wants a “cool” haircut; he now not wants his dad to buzz his hair within the garage.
When we walked in, my stylist took one take a look at me, and said, “Girl. Are you stressed?”
“Why?” I asked, just a little shocked.
“You have stress hair!”
“What is stress hair? What are you even talking about?” I responded, appalled.
At that moment, my stylist said something I never expected to listen to: “Your hair is telling a story. You need nourishment. You need rest. And we’d like to chop it…. today.”
I left the salon, with not only my son’s latest look, but additionally with an unexpected haircut for myself…and a complete lot of huge feelings.
You need rest.
You need nourishment.
Your hair is telling a complete story.
These phrases kept running through my head weeks after that appointment because I knew my hair was telling me something I had been ignoring.
When Life Feels Too Stressful
The truth is, I actually have been wired currently — life’s demands on a mom of three teenagers, work changes, and a few financial difficulties, plus a deep season of grief after losing my best friend to breast cancer. Well, I didn’t realize the toll it was taking over my body. But my hair was telling the story.
So — what to do when we’d like soul nourishment? When we’d like rest? When we’d like to replenish?
The hard part is that when we’d like soul rest, the very last thing we must always do is more.
We don’t need more hustle or more things to envision off our to-do lists. Rather, we’d like to do not forget that we’re human beings, not human doings.
So, we start by getting curious. We check in with our emotions. We discover and name what’s causing a lot stress.
And then? We go concerning the business of tending to our soul’s feeding.
But how? Below are just a few easy ideas:
1. Be within the Word
God’s word is rest for the weary soul. The law of the Lord is ideal, refreshing the soul. (Psalm 19:7a NIV).
2. Listen to Worship Music
God is big, and we usually are not. Worship helps us to trust him and never strive in our stress.
Let the message of Christ dwell amongst you richly as you teach and admonish each other with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts (Colossians 3:16).
3. Rest
Literally fall asleep. Take baths. Drink relaxing tea. Wind down. Pause from the usually — violent rhythms of life. Be kind to yourself.
For anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, due to this fact, make every effort to enter that rest, in order that nobody will perish by following their example of disobedience (Hebrews 9:9/11).
4. Play
Sabbath rest can be Sabbath delight. Enjoy times of fun with family and along with your friends. Play games.
Go on walks. Enjoy life! This is an act of worship, a biblical commandment and does wonders on your soul’s replenishment.
Six days you shall labor and do all of your work, however the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns (Exodus 20:8-11).
5. Remember the Basics
Just like my hair needed some latest vitamins, our souls need sunshine, movement, water, and good food — the fundamentals — to feel refreshed and be nourished. In fact, in Maslows’s hierarchy of needs, physiological needs are the inspiration.
You honor the undeniable fact that you could have been created within the image of God if you care for yourself.
So God created man and woman in his own image, within the image of God created he him; female and male he created them (Genesis 1:27).
6. Encourage Others
Stepping out of our own myopic perspective to serve others helps us move away from our self-focus and negativity.
This shift — texting someone an encouraging note, sending a surprise gift, meeting a necessity — helps us love ourselves as we love others, and shakes up the moods we’re stuck in.
Therefore encourage each other and construct one another up, just as in actual fact you might be doing (1 Thessalonians 5:11).&
7. Keep a Gratitude Journal
This is nearly cliché at this point. But it’s essential for a healthy outlook on life to call and keep a listing of the things which might be good — health, safety, sunshine, family, friends, shoes to wear, etc.
The small things are sometimes one of the best things, they usually could be missed in seasons of stress. But intentional gratitude — keeping an ongoing list or a phone note — brings rest and nourishment to the weary soul.
Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all His advantages — who forgives all of your sins and heals all of your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion (Psalm 103:1-4).
8. Pay Attention to Yourself and Your Reactions
If you might be overreacting to something, or reacting in impatience, anger, or in a way that seems larger than the situation warrants, that might be an indication that you simply usually are not okay.
Take a while to take heed to the stories you might be telling yourself, remind yourself of God’s story about you, and select a response that’s counter to what you would possibly have done in your stress.
So now we have come to know and to consider the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him (1 John 4:16).
9. Choose Community
Stress could cause us to isolate, zone out, escape, or numb. Try to avoid this gently. Don’t isolate. Instead, discover a secure church community, join a small group, or gather with friends so that you simply aren’t alone.
Let us not hand over the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, allow us to encourage each other all of the more, because you see that the Day of the Lord is coming nearer (Hebrews 10:25).
Similar to my dying hair, my computer recently stopped functioning properly, and it needed a whole reset.
Sometimes, our bodies tell us what we don’t even realize — like that computer and like my “stress hair” — we’d like to pause, get some perspective and begin over. Why? Because God loves us and desires us to experience the abundance life has to supply.
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/Daniel de la Hoz
