Sacred Rest by Saundra Dalton-Smith MD

Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity (FaithWords, December 2017)

Staying busy is easy. Staying well rested— there’s a challenge.

How can you keep your energy, happiness, creativity, and relationships fresh and thriving in the midst of never-ending family demands, career pressures, and the stress of everyday life? In Sacred Rest, Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, a board-certified internal medicine doctor, reveals why rest can no longer remain optional.

Dr. Dalton-Smith shares seven types of rest she has found lacking in the lives of those she encounters in her clinical practice and research-physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, sensory, social, creative—and why a deficiency in any one of these types of rest can have unfavorable effects on your health, happiness, relationships, creativity, and productivity. Sacred Restcombines the science of rest, the spirituality of rest, the gifts of rest, and the resulting fruit of rest. It shows rest as something sacred, valuable, and worthy of our respect.

By combining scientific research with personal stories, spiritual insight, and practical next steps, Sacred Rest gives the weary permission to embrace rest, set boundaries, and seek sanctuary without any guilt, shame, or fear.

My opinion: This book is just what I need as I added my second child to our family here recently and feel anything but rested. This book combines research, scriptures and personal stories to make an amazing, encouraging book that engages and inspires one to make more of an effort to get rest in ones life so that you can fully engage in life and live it to the fullest. What a great book to read at the beginning of the year to help prepare for the year and to make rest a priority and not an afterthought like we so often do. I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.