Rest is essential for us to thrive. This is true for our bodies, minds, and relationships. If you and your spouse aren’t making the time to rest together, it’s something we strongly recommend. When you take the time to rest with your spouse, you’re able to focus on where you are during this season of life, and the person you chose to spend your life with.
Life is busy. Despite that fact, rest is a requirement for health and wellbeing. Let’s look at a few reasons why.
Staying in constant motion numbs us.
Continual motion goes hand-in-hand with the idea of a daily “grind”. But movement without pause eventually causes us to become numb to not only our own needs, but our spouse’s, too. When we’re so out of touch with our own need for self-care, it can be difficult to anticipate what our spouse might need help with, or where they could use support.
Busyness is a convenient excuse for staying in a perpetual state of tunnel vision–that is, until the things we’ve been neglecting, such as rest, catch up with us. It’s a safe bet to say that by the time we’re exhausted as individuals, we’re risking strain on our marriages, too.
When we take time to rest, we’re able to break free from numbness and reflect on how we might better nourish ourselves and one another. Without rest, we’ll drive ourselves further into numbness and eventually, burnout, both of which can wreak havoc on a marriage.
Rest encourages intimacy.
When we’re exhausted, it’s difficult to focus on deepening our intimacy. Taking time to rest is a natural step toward greater intimacy, which will nurture your marriage like nothing else can. Husbands and wives need plenty of time to grow their intimate relationships, not only in the first years of marriage, but throughout the decades.
Focus on getting plenty of rest together, and on taking an occasional sabbatical where you focus on resting and restoring yourselves. Having healthy, rested bodies and clear minds will naturally lend itself to a more intimate marriage.
Slowing down gives us time to dream together.
Avoiding burnout and increasing intimacy are only two benefits of resting with your spouse more often. Rest also gives us time to dream together, because it takes us out of our busy rhythm and can open our minds to possibilities outside of daily routines. Taking time away from work and obligations helps us to get centered on our dreams again.
When we’re resting together and giving ourselves time to truly reflect, then we have an opportunity to nurture those dreams together. Are there things you’re looking forward to in the future that require making plans in the present? Do you have dreams you’ve put on hold or let go of because of a hectic season in your life? This could be a time to focus on those dreams and reconnect with them, together.
Rest is such an important part of our overall wellbeing. When we’re focused on becoming healthier individuals, then we can have healthier relationships, too. It’s a bonus if we can get healthier in tandem. For a deeper dive into boosting individual health and, as a result, relationship health, take a look at our book, Healthy Me, Healthy Us. Our relationships are only as healthy as we are, so if you need a jump-start, pick up your copy here.
Do you and your spouse take time to rest together? Why or why not? Leave us a comment and let us know.
I try to rest with my spouse but there are a lot of competing priorities. The daily grind is a real thing with commute, work, commute, kids activities, family time, alone time with each individual kid (I have 3) and alone time with spouse. Not to mention cook and cleaning and house maintenance. It’s a lot!