Rest, Play, Repeat

In this episode, I share  what it means to “fill your soul” and practical ways to do it.

Overwhelm, exhaustion, and frustration,are indicators that you may be beyond simple tiredness - your soul may be depleted. It is  time to rest—not just physically, but also mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Rest isn’t limited to sleep; it includes anything that helps you feel revived and whole.

You are beloved and inherently worthy—simply for existing, not based on all you do and accomplish. When you deeply believe this, it becomes easier to create days filled with peace, rest, joy, and connection that truly refill your soul.

Imagine waking up energized, moving through your day with intention, and savoring small moments of sunshine, from morning rituals to enjoying nature or meaningful conversation.

Try these ideas shared on the episode to bring more rest and joy into your week:

• Take a few deep breaths while feeling the sunshine on your face each morning.
• Go outside and put your feet in the grass, noticing the sensation and slowing down.
• Visit a local farm and pick some fresh fruit; savor it mindfully.
• Set aside time with no screen or agenda—just rest, play, or connect with nature.

What does “a day full of sunshine” look like for you? Choose one simple thing to do every day this week.

Links 

• Join Kelly's Group Coaching Program
• Join Kelly’s Free community on Skool

 Let's connect.

I am cheering for you!

Transcript

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the way for someone who's totally overwhelmed to stop feeling overwhelmed. You have to do nothing. Your rest and your work is how you care for your soul, and your rest and your play is how you fill that soul with sunshine. Today's goal is to fill your soul with sunshine welcome to Vibrant Life Podcast. I'm life coach Kelly Tibbits, and each week I'll be here to encourage and equip you with the tools you need to grow in self-awareness and invest your best energy in your dreams and your purpose. I believe self-awareness changes everything. Let's get started. In my opinion, Fill Your Soul With Sunshine is the path to follow the scripture that says, "Don't grow weary doing good." You start by noticing that your soul needs care. If your soul feels overwhelmed, exhausted, frustrated, depleted, you need some care. The way to make sure that the areas of your life are getting the energy it needs is by creating that protocol, that plan of where your energy is gonna go. Then rest, then play, then do your purpose-filled work. Your rest and your work is how you care for your soul, and your rest and your play is how you fill that soul with sunshine. Today's goal is to leave with a plan of what you're going to do to fill your soul with sunshine, and use whatever word you want for sunshine. Fill it with joy, fill it with peace, fill it with love, fill it with kindness, whatever word is speaking to you right now. We're starting with rest. Rest is the beginning, and it's not just sleeping, and it's not just not working. It is a way to mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually revive yourself. I love the verse where Jesus reminds us of the most important thing. Of so many important things, what's the most important thing? Love God with your heart, and your soul, and your mind, and your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. These different parts of you, your heart, and your mind, and your soul, and your body all need rest, and they look different. Sleep really does help your physical body, but mentally, what helps you rest? Sometimes it's having a conversation and getting those thoughts out of your brain. Sometimes it's taking a piece of paper and doing a brain dump. How about emotionally? How do you even notice the energy? Those of us who are Enneagrams twos, threes, and fours might be able to put our hand on our heart and feel our feelings in our body, but an Enneagram five, six, and seven might just notice their thoughts and the feelings a little harder. How do you rest emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually? How do you bring the joy into your life? One of the first verses I learned was from the Book of Nehemiah, and it says, "The joy of the Lord is our strength." I think joy is really important for us to be strong. We need to be intentional. We need to take care of ourselves the way a mom would take care of a young baby, by paying attention, and pivoting, and changing, and tailoring it to you. We're gonna notice today, we're gonna think up front, and to do that, here's our first question. Is there something you used to enjoy doing, you no longer do it, you don't do it enough? Or is there anything new you'd like to try? Those different questions might have different answers. You might have loved ice skating when you were younger, like I did, and then it's something that you don't get to, and there's something new you'd like to try. One of my favorite stories is somebody I know who's in her early 30s, moved up to the north of New Hampshire, went on a hike and discovered she loves climbing mountains, and she had never done it before. And she was so surprised with how much she loves it. So is there anything that you used to do and you do really love it, but you're not getting to it enough? Or is there anything that you're noticing other people are doing and you're like, "I wanna try it"? So I'm gonna tell you guys my new favorite thing to do. My friend was showing herself jumping on a rebounder, and I was like, "That looks fun, and I think I might like to try it." And I brought it into my own life, and it is something I really enjoy doing. It's simple. It's easy. It gets me that fun, fast workout. What's something you used to do, you're not doing it, or something you've seen somebody do and you're thinking, "I'd like to try it"? Can you make a decision about either of those or maybe even both if you have the emotional energy for two decisions? When we do something without an agenda, without saying it should be this long or take this long or should be do this, when we take the time for mindful play, it's the cure for overwhelm. And maybe you're feeling overwhelmed today, and you notice that by maybe your nervous system isn't feeling very regulated. You feel like there's just too much to do and not enough time to do it. Is there a way to do a no agenda, no time-bound way of just resting and recovering? I did something really simple today of just going out on my porch because the weather's actually really good. It's not too hot, it's not rainy, and I just sat there for a few minutes and watched the chipmunks run around. It's a cure for overwhelm. And doing nothing is the only way for someone who's totally overwhelmed to stop feeling overwhelmed. You have to do nothing. If you wonder what your different feelings are, I really do recommend Brené Brown's Atlas of the Heart. Very beneficial for most of us because we don't even know what the feeling is, what it means, what it's trying to tell us. I love the idea that our feelings are trying to teach us something. So when you're feeling angry, almost always your body is trying to say there was a boundary and it was crossed. Now, that's different than rage, which loses the light in me honoring the light in you. But maybe the feeling you're feeling of overwhelmed, frustrated, exhausted, annoyed is trying to tell you something. And could you sit, do some quiet nothingness for a little bit? You know, lay in the sun, look at the clouds, and begin to notice those feelings and see if maybe they're telling you. Another thing to notice while we're resting is what are your red flags and warning signs? A few years ago, I had the chance to go see Gabby Bernstein in Boston, and she was talking about internal family systems. And in it, there's these eight words that tell us when we're in aligned energy: connected, calm, confident, compassionate, clear, creative, courageous, and curious. And not all eight of those are your word, but one of those might be. And when you stop being curious or you stop feeling calm or you stop feeling creative, maybe you're overwhelmed and it's time to pull back and rest. So if you can notice what your way of becoming aware of your overwhelm, your frustration, your resentment, the sooner you see it, the easier it is to pivot and use some of your tools to get back to that aligned energy And in an ideal world, we have regular times of doing nothing, of honoring Shabbat, of having Sabbath practices that can revive us in the middle of a busy life. But when we don't pay attention, sometimes those pauses of doing nothing come with illness or injury or some other breakdown. So we don't wanna wait until we're forced to bed for two weeks because we're sick. We'd like to find these pauses in our life on a regular basis, and the pause, that rest, is actually supposed to be life-giving, and each of us have our own distinct ways of growing again. So please don't look to other people of what's the right way to do this. Take the time and notice what's best for you, but rest is step one. When I first began teaching this, I needed this. I needed to know that rest was step one, and how would I know I was rested? I would have the energy to play. What I find to be play and what you find to be play are very different things. I enjoy couponing. When I don't have the energy to go and do that, I'm tired. When I don't have the energy to organize something, when I don't have the energy to walk, I'm tired, and instead of telling myself I should do something, I know my work is to rest. When you don't want to play, it means you're still tired. You need more time to rest. But once you've rested enough, the first thing you wanna do before your purpose-filled work is play. Fill yourself with sunshine. It starts with this belief: You are beloved. You are filled from top to bottom with love. That's just who you are. Breathing in, breathing out, that's your value. Not anything you produce, not anything you do. Reminding yourself that you're already 100% loved and 100% worthy can help you stay in aligned energy. That's our goal every time we come together once a week, to align our energy to truth. And so believing that just breathing in and breathing out is your value can help free up your soul. You deserve a life where you're filled with peace and rest and fun and play. How true does that feel? I said that you deserve a life that is filled with peace and rest and fun and play. Now, I'm a new grandmother, and I'm telling you, that granddaughter of mine deserves a life of peace and rest and fun and play, and she does no work yet. She's growing. That's her work. But she deserves it for breathing in and breathing out. So if you know that's true of somebody you love, I hope you can take that love back upon yourself Your life deserves a whole lot of sunshine. How would you describe that vibe? Is it sitting at the ocean as the sun is setting? Is it reading a book that you just love? Is it having two or three friends around the table drinking iced tea together and having an important conversation? How would you describe a day full of sunshine? Let's do it together. You just woke up. You have enough energy to get out of bed. You're not exhausted. What's the first thing you do? Simply because you love it, not because you have to. Now, nourishing my body is really important to me, so drinking water with lemon is something I want to do and I enjoy doing. So it's okay that it might be good for you. I'm not saying you have to do something that's not good for you. But how would you describe the vibe of first thing in the morning? What brings you joy? Now as your day begins to move, it's the morning. What do you wanna be doing? How about at lunchtime? Do you, like me, notice a dip in your energy? What do you do when your energy dips? I take a nap at least three to four times a day. Not a day, a week. But what do you do as your energy begins to dip? Now you have the middle of the day. Maybe it's dinner time, you're starting to get ready for that. Anything you enjoy? For me, even just adding some music playing in the background while I'm cleaning a kitchen or cooking, that brings sunshine back into that chore. What do you enjoy after dinner? I know what I don't enjoy. I don't enjoy when I end up scrolling my phone for too long. It really brings my energy down. I don't wanna be doing that. What do you like to do in the early evening? How about as you get closer to bed? Do you have any morning rituals or night rituals that just bring your sunshine back into your home? It could be something as simple as like skincare you really love, or maybe taking a bath or reading a book. What would it look like for you to decide today you're gonna fill your day with sunshine? And maybe it can't be every minute. We all are adults doing adult work, but could it be moments throughout the day that just bring sunshine into your life? The path there is starting with a thought. Deep in your soul do you believe that you deserve a life that is filled with rest and with joy and with purpose-filled work where you fill your soul with sunshine? Or do you feel compelled to constantly be in a frenetic state of doing? I don't think anyone when they sit and think about it truly feels like they don't deserve joy, but without intention we can accidentally fill our life with the busy work of doing because we forget how very loved we are and how deserving of rest we are. For me, my faith system is part of why I believe this. In the Bible, God says that we're supposed to rest a whole day a week, that there would be enough time and energy and resources to do the work that's mine if I start with rest. So just being and just resting, this almost nothing work of sitting still and enjoying the life we already have can be incorporated by doing just some small little action steps on repeat So when you are in that place where you can just believe you're 100% loved just for breathing in and out, one practice we can do is a little bit of breathwork. I saw somebody the other day describe this as putting your hand on your stomach and noticing how your stomach moves when you breathe in and out. And his suggestion to begin breathwork is just follow your breath. Huh, my stomach's moving up. Hmm, it's going down a little bit. Oh, I went a little longer with my breath in. I felt my breath go out. Just be. What's your energy when you're doing that? It's probably very calm, connected. What happens when you move over to the doing energy and the to-do list, and I need to, and I should? You might notice as I did, the energy, the vibe is very different. So the goal for today is to notice what it looks like when you do the things that bring you joy, to believe that you're already 100% loved no matter what you're producing, and then to take the time to decide in advance what would you like to do on repeat. Do you want to notice every hour? Did you take a few deep breaths and just kind of drop your shoulders? Do you wanna decide before you go to sleep at night, it's 30 minutes without any phone or television or any kind of input? It makes a big difference for our nervous system to constantly not be overwhelmed by the information of things we can't do anything about anyway. I love that one of the simple ways to just connect to sunshine is to just go out into nature. So I'm gonna give you a few ideas here, but I'd love for you to pick one. You could go and pick some fruit. There's nothing like having some fresh-picked blueberries. You could go out in the morning and feel the sunshine on your face before you begin the day. Again, just standing still, maybe your feet are in the grass, eyes are closed. If there's a gentle breeze, you could sit and just allow it. You could take your shoes off and put your feet either in the sand or the grass and take a few breaths. Or you could decide today you're gonna take a blanket somewhere where you can see the sunrise or the sunset. Those are five suggestions, but I'd love for you to pick one. What's one simple, simple thing you'd like to do? And again, there's no right or wrong answers. Whichever one of these is for you, choose it. I have a coach who always reminds us in the summer when the strawberries are fresh, go get some, and then eat one slowly and really enjoy it. Our goal is to find time for rest, to find time for joy, and to create a life where we fill our soul with sunshine. Thank you for joining the Live a Vibrant Life podcast. I hope our time together encouraged you and will equip you with the tools you need to live a brave, creative, purpose-filled life. And if you'd like to learn more, you can follow me on Instagram or Facebook, Kelly Tibbits Life Coach, or visit my website, kellytibbitts.com. I look forward to connecting again soon