Digital Education Programming Presented by the
Center for Health & Wellbeing
Many of us can still remember a time when life slowed down on Sundays, when stores closed and families gathered for a special meal. These days, the lines between work days and rest days have been blurred to near invisibility. And yet, deep down we know we are well served when we intentionally and deliberately set aside downtime.
Studies inside the American Time Use Survey show 70% of U.S. people work at least one weekend a month and about 35% of employed Americans are working on any given weekend. Add to that household chores, grocery shopping, extra-curricular activities for kids, social engagements and errands and it’s no wonder that more and more people report having Sunday night blues.
Our rest-less weekend leaves us feeling both forlorn for what didn’t get done (including rest) and anxiety-ridden as we face the onslaught of activity looming ahead in the impending workweek.
Without rest, we live in a flurry of hasty decisions, we lack the sloth to contemplate our choices, and to tap into our inner wisdom and intuition. But the Sabbath gives us time and space to slow down long enough to be still and reflect.
It’s also when we engage our capacity to delight in our lives. The Sabbath invites time to feast, to nap, play, create and touch. It’s when we allow ourselves to be nourished, filled and restored. While a weekly Sabbath borrows many of the rituals from the Christian Sabbath and Jewish Shabbat traditions, including an adherence to no work, no spending, and no commitments outside of the home, a secular Sabbath is something that anyone can embrace.
When we step back to really look at what we give most of our time, money and attention to, we may be alarmed to see how much prominence we give to work, buying things, and maintaining the things that we have bought. But how much delight, joy and rest do we have? How much of the real living of our life have we traded away in order to work more and spend more? And while for some, working constantly to make ends meet is the only option, for many others, our incessant working, doing, achieving, buying and tidying is just a bad habit that has simply become a compulsive, mindless way of living.
A Sabbath gives us a chance to put down our compulsive activity and reactivity, not only to rest but to gain enough distance from it to see it more clearly. A Sabbath helps us to stop and discern what really matters.
In this program, you’ll learn how to create this weekly rest ritual, elements to incorporate, and how to guard it with intention by:
Learning why a weekly Sabbath matters.
Discovering the elements that will make your Sabbath connective, joyful and restful.
Learning how to create the Sabbath habit and to guard it with intention.
About Your Program Presenter
Kristen Manieri is a mindfulness teacher and coach who has spent nearly two decades studying the human experience. As the host of the 60 Mindful Minutes podcast, she interviews authors and thought-leaders about what it means to live a more connected, conscious and intentional life.
A writer with more than a decade of experience, Kristen’s work has been published on Huffington Post, Pop Sugar, Your Tango and the Gottman Institute Blog, as well as inflight magazines and blogs for international airlines such as West Jet and Virgin.
In 2018, Kristen launched her course, Awakened Living, and has taken countless women through the process of becoming the conscious witness of their lives. Her goal is to help students become their sturdiest, steadiest, calmest selves.
She shares her life with her two daughters, her husband, and their three cats, in Orlando, Florida.
