Physical and emotional healing is helped by relaxation. Relaxation helps the healing that comes from within. There are times when it is beneficial to let the motor idle. The test of beneficial relaxation is that it gives more energy than it uses. I see people come back from recreation not re-created but destroyed. How many times do you hear, "I need a vacation just to recover?" That is not relaxation.
Too often our relaxation is determined by our peers, not by our own needs. We are in a high-energy time when we feel that to have a good time we almost have to be hysterical. Our Madison Avenue advertisements are not helping us to lead balanced lives but driving us toward burn-out.
Controlled relaxation is not relaxing. I've seen the control types who say "now we will relax for five minutes." I think of the child on vacation with the controlling father who innocently asked, "Are we having fun yet, Daddy?" True relaxation is a release of control. One of the most permanently relaxing things in my life was when I discovered the sovereignty of God. When I found out that He's going to be able to let me die and still continue running the world I relaxed. When I came firmly to believe that God doesn't need me, but instead loves me I could relax in that truth.
The best relaxation is non-competitive, which is hard for us executive types to achieve. Barbara Brown has done some very interesting early research on bio-feedback in which she experimented with computerizing a small toy race track to let executives compete with each other in their ability to relax. By controlling the cars through relaxation the winning car was the result of the executive who was most relaxed. There's something silly about us humans.
What most of us need to do is simply give ourselves permission to relax without
guilt. I have a friend who travels worldwide and has found a nap to be a way to recover from jet lag. He has actually built it into his standard operating procedure for himself. But most people still fight with the concept of napping and feel a nagging twinge of "work ethic guilt." When I was in charge of the factory and had my office there, every afternoon after lunch I took off my coat, climbed up on my conference table and took a nap. My mentor, Maxey Jarman, who was a very energetic person, couldn't understand how I could be asleep with the plant running. It was no trouble at all. I felt it was the most important thing I could be doing right then.
I am convinced that the seventh day of rest wasn't just for spiritual rejuvenation, but physical and emotional, as well. It would be wonderful if all of us, like the Quaker philosopher Thomas Kelley, could have what he recommends: "a quiet center" to our life which nothing can disturb. Relaxation strengthens this quiet center.
