Saturday Breaks
On Saturdays, I take a step back and allow myself to be less intense with things.
I give myself a big break every Saturday. I call it my "cheat day" where I allow myself to slow down and be less intense with life. In particular, I allow myself to be less intense with my spiritual exercises. On most days, I try to be as disciplined as I can with my spiritual development. I usually aim to spend 3 hours a day communing with the Lord and engaging in various spiritual exercises. This includes a lot of stillness, prayer, reading Scripture, memorizing and recalling Scripture, worship, and contemplation. It can make for some really intense days. But like many things in life, I can only keep up the intensity for so long before burning out. I am aware of this and I plan for this so that I can mitigate the effects of an intense routine. And so, on Saturdays, I take a step back and allow myself to be less intense with things.
On my "cheat day," I'll just spend anywhere from 30-60 minutes communing with the Lord rather than the usual 3 hours. I won't read as many passages of Scripture (3 passages versus the usual 9). I don't memorize Scripture or recall memorized ones (I usually recall close to 200 verses each day). And I give myself a lot of flexibility in terms of what spiritual disciplines I want to engage in or not. Since my days can usually be quite intense, having a big break once a week really helps make things more manageable in the long run.
There are some other things that I also take a break from to help with the daily intensity:
I don't wake up at 5 AM so that I can get extra rest.
I pause from exercising so that my body can recover more.
I don't write and I try not to do anything work-related (also applies to Sundays).
Since I take a break from doing any of this stuff, the day really feels less intense and I am able to give myself a proper rest. It also gives me more time to do two things that I really want to do on weekends: spend more time with my family and focus on my personal growth (in particular, reading more books). By giving myself a break once a week, I'm able to recover from the intensity so that I can go back at it with renewed energy and focus.
Barnabas the Monastic
Servant of Christ. Husband. Dad. Modern Monastic. I have a wild ambition in life: get as close to the Lord Jesus Christ as I can while on earth. I explore and integrate ancient Christian monk wisdom in modern everyday life. Lives in Canada.
