“Beneath the frenzied activity and the frantic thoughts that dominate our daily lives exists a quiet voice” (p. 13).
One of the more impactful reads of this past year in my life was “Wholeheartedness: busyness, exhaustion, and healing the divided self” by Chuck DeGroat. Typically, rest or retreat is encouraged for symptoms of burnout and exhaustion. However, Degroat provides an interesting, alternative perspective . He suggests that the reason we find ourselves exhausted has more to do with a lack of integration— that it is the “divideness” within the self which truly exhausts us. Rather than the actual busyness of our activities being the main culprit of exhaustion, it is that the busyness distracts us from our “self”.
Our busyness keeps us “running from the opportunity to draw from the deep well of our mysterious inner lives … we treat that rising ache from within as something to quiet as quickly as we can” (p. 17). Rather than allowing the distractions pull us from the various voices within that can be hard to sit with, we are encouraged to sit and hear all that is going on inside, so that we may be able to then listen to the “True Self”.
Degroat offers a helpful exercise near the end of his book. I encourage any interested readers to give it a go:
- Situate into a comfortable upright position
- Sit in silence for 10 minutes
- Take deep breaths
- Notice in a nonjudgemental way all that your senses are taking in (see, hear, feel, smell…)
Once the 10 minutes is over, write or share what you experienced and noticed. Specifically notice if there were times your mind drifted off and various thoughts or voices that came to mind. The “You” who notices these voices or drifts off- is what DeGroat describes as the “True Self”. He encourages practicing this for several days to begin reflecting rather than being disconnected from what we are discovering as the “True Self”. This connection to the True Self is a way to begin feeling more rest from a wholeness with one’s self. This acceptance and reflective position of self allows for more grounded and connected living.
References
DeGroat, Chuck. Wholeheartedness: Busyness, Exhaustion, and Healing the Divided Self. Kindle Edition. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2016.