Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity

I enjoyed this book so much, and found it so helpful, that I bought copies for friends for Christmas. I wasn't really sure what to expect but, being busy and tired during the Christmas season, the title caught my eye. It proved to be much more than I was expecting!Most of us think we are "resting" when we are sleeping. Too many times we think that we don't have time for adequate rest or we may misinterpret setting aside the time as selfish. The author addresses these concerns. If you're like me, you will see yourself in many of the excuses as well as the case studies. This book expands the idea of rest well beyond sleeping, physical stillness, or "down-time." It is divided into short, easy-to-read and understand chapters which explain, give examples of, and encourage self-introspection into physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, sensory, and creative rest.While the author writes from an obvious Christian perspective, there is nothing overbearing or nonscientific in her writing. Being a physician, she has witnessed and testifies to evidence and to numerous case studies of consequences of deficiency in the various forms of rest. She actually incorporates scientific/medical evidence to support her claims and observations. Overall. the author does a masterful job in blending the tones of a best friend, your physician, and a spiritual mentor into one helpful conversation and motivational tool. I was especially encouraged by the second half of the book where Dr, Dalton-Smith goes into more details explaining the gifts we receive as we observe a more rested life...gifts including: boundaries, reflection, freedom, acceptance, and productivity. I also like the additional resources including the Personal Rest Deficit Assessment Tool and the link to a Thirty Day Sacred Rest Challenge.I definitely recommend this book for personal study and reflection, self-help, and spiritual growth. Also makes a great gift!

This book has helped me in more ways than I can count. It reaffirms choices I've already made - when to say "no" to people, to circumstances, to my need to organize certain areas of my life. It agrees with my choice to let go and roll my burdens and stresses over on God. But the most priceless thing it gave me was hope. There are things in my life I want to change and I either spend way too much time trying to change them on my own or I give up entirely. Areas where I have had no faith to believe because I didn't see how God could fix that, I now believe He can, and I can't pay enough for learning that.Where I've struggled isn't the same as Dr. Dalton-Smith, yet she included something for every personality. More than just the words "you need to do this," which most of us already know, she's included the how-to and a new perspective on where happiness comes from. It's been around me all along, yet I've been too caught up in bouts of anger and frustration to experience it.A marvelous book every reader needs to digest. 5 stars.

I was excited to read this book because I really want to become better at resting, taking it easy, and going slow. I don't want to burnout again, and I hoped this book would help.I admit, I gave up at about page 65. Honestly, this is very rare for me - I try to finish every book I start. And I hadn't abandoned a book for almost 2 years before this one.The book was written in all kinds of wordy stories and memories that honestly didn't even feel relevant. This may be personal taste, but I also found the author's writing voice hard to read. She used a ton of metaphors, but they didn't feel very thoughtful or accurate. It often felt like she was prioritizing cleverness over content. And I found her desire to be witty and funny actually detracted from the book.I was also surprised at how Christian this book is. I am a religiously unaffiliated spiritual seeker myself, and can appreciate finding wisdom in different traditions. I've read books by Christians about Christianity. Though usually if I'm reading a Christian book, I'm doing it by choice to learn about Christianity. In this case, I didn't realize beforehand how Christian this book was going to be - it felt kind of smuggled in. And honestly, it also made this book hard to read.My last issue with the book is that after reading 65 pages I had 1 takeaway. Simply that it's important to rest, and if you don't rest, you might collapse in some other way. Though I left with no practical tips or actual ideas on how to implement more rest in my life, nor did I leave with any new insights about how to understand rest with more nuance.I don't mean to offend the author - it seems a lot of people resonate with her personality and style. Though for me, this book had me feel consistently frustrated and underwhelmed.

Incredible book!!! Opened my eyes to so many false definitions of rest (i.e. escapism). And helping me see that rest can be an ACTIVE journey too. Discovered so many types of rest! I got halfway thru reading the physical book, then bought the audiobook too so I can listen and re-listen again in the car or when I do chores! It is well written, easy and fun to read. Very personable voice in the author's writing style. It was truly a breath of fresh air! Whether you are busy or exhausted or ultra successful or all is well in your life/world, this book is perfect for anyone and everyone to discover the beauty and benefits of true rest!! Our whole family (including my spouse and Elementary aged kids) are going thru this book together again now. Each of us are having fun discussions and "aha moments" as we read and listen together.

This was recommended to me by a therapist. It is terrible. No practical ideas about rest, just banging on and shoving Christianity down the readers throat. I couldn’t even finish it.

I have valued the practical applications of the ideas of this book! It breaks down the 7 types of rest, signs that indicate which rest you may be lacking, and has a writing style that is accessible and easy to engage with!

There are a lot of references to the Christian god throughout the book. If that doesn’t bother you, then there’s a fair amount of good material.

great read. Goes to the experience of a medical professionals breakdown and the experience and journey of encountering sacred rest through seven different themes. Simple reading with enjoyable content and personal experience in between. There's also additional information to help assess yourself when it comes to stress and where you seem to be rest deficient. The practical applications are very simple to follow through. It's you need to read it from a doctor's perspective in their personal life

The content sounds really interesting but then as soon as you start reading it looks more like a personal diary and doesn’t bring much information.The second part is even worse, I can’t let a book unfinished and I went through but it was painful.