Welcome, welcome to the sweet spot. Today is self-care Saturday here on the Sweet Spot, and I'm your host, I'm Dr. Derek Sweet. As you know, I'm a board certified psychiatrist. I specialize in sport and performance. But more than that, I enjoy helping others, helping you live the best life ever. Live the life you love. I love helping people make a difference, whether that's on the field, in the boardroom, or in life. Now, all week long, we've been talking about the power of ancient wisdom. Psalm 23. We've been exploring it, we've been getting insights from it, and it's been wonderful after this week of pushing forward, taking action, and trusting ourselves. Today, today is just as important. It's Self Care Saturday. It's about restoring yourself. Because high performance isn't just about grinding harder, it's about recharging smarter. And you know what's wild? Psalm 23 starts exactly that way. Not with battle, not with struggle, but with an image of peace, rest, and restoration. Think about it. Those images in the first part of that psalm. You have a shepherd, and you have the sheep not wanting anything. Then you have all these actions that the shepherd's taking. The most high providing, making me to lie down in the green pastures, leading me beside the still waters, restoring my soul. All that in the first three or four sentences. Notice what it doesn't say. It doesn't say he suggested I take a break when things slow down. It doesn't say if I finish my to-do list, then I get to rest. No, it says he makes me to lie down, he leads me to the stillness, and he restores me. Wow. I shall not want for anything. I'm not gonna have any needs right now because everything is already provided. I'm in abundance. Abundance in my thinking, abundance in my thought. Because let's be real. Rest provides a pathway to abundant energy. It's good for us. But do we do it? No. I speak to myself. We resist it. We tell ourselves we don't have time. We push through exhaustion and we treat rest like it's some kind of reward. Something we must deserve and earn when in all actuality rest is our fuel. And here's the thing: your brain isn't just hoping you rest, it needs you to rest. Because when you don't rest, it literally stops working the way it should. The brain is like a car, it needs gas, it needs fuel, it needs tulips, all of the things your car needs. You ever wake up after a bad night's sleep and feel really weird, really foggy, kind of slow, kind of off, maybe a bit irritable. That's because your brain has something called a gymphatic system, not lymphatic system like the body. This is with the G, a gymphatic system, right, in the brain, and what it does is it's like a built-in rinse cycle, it cleans the brain out. So when we sleep, this gymphatic system flushes out the toxins in our brain, it clears the waste and it resets your brain so that you can focus, think clearly, and show up as your best self. That's why when you have a great night's sleep, you can wake up feeling fresh, you have new ideas, you can even solve problems when it's good, but you're really sleeping, right? But if you're constantly running an empty, getting very little sleep, not allowing yourself to rest, not taking advantage of self-care, especially here on self-care Saturday, your brain doesn't get a chance to reset. And the waste products build up over time, and you start feeling drained and scattered and have a short fuse. And let's be honest, you just don't feel like yourself, and you're just running on fumes, and that's when stress hits hard, that's when the emotions feel weird and heavy, and even the small decisions feel annoying and exhausting, and you just feel like you're just grinding. But here's the good news: just like the Psalm says, Psalm 23, this ancient wisdom, how did they know that we needed to take our minds to the green pastures and the still waters, and that our soul needed to be restored. You know what that does for the brain waves? Do you know what that does for the brain when we are led to the still waters? We find ourselves to lying down in the green pastures. Oh my goodness! Your brain thrives when you give it time to recover, and it doesn't take weeks. Even small moments of rest and recovery can make a massive difference. I work in sports and I see it all the time. High-level athletes, top performers, the ones who do the best are the ones who build in their recovery, who understand that rest and recovery are critical and they have a structured plan. The rod and the staff of rest and recovery. Remember, we talked about this in the psalm. The rod and the staff they provide comfort. But I never thought when I read this in the psalm that the rod and staff they'll comfort me. That this rod and staff represent a kind of structure. And for the purposes of today's conversation, it's like rest and recovery provide provide a kind of a structure that allows the comfort for the brain and the brain's lymphatic system to replenish us and give us all of the mental recovery that we need. Wow! Who knew that ancient wisdom and today's neuroscience could find this beautiful moment to shake hands? Okay, so here's my challenge to you on Self-Care Saturday. How can you actively restore yourself today? Maybe it's extra sleep, maybe it's stepping away from your phone for an hour, maybe it's just taking a walk in nature, or just practicing some deep breathing, or reminding yourself, hey, I need to rest. And remember, rest is not about being lazy, it's necessary. Because when you restore yourself, my friend, you don't just recharge, you come back stronger. So let's close with this affirmation. Rest fuels me, stillness strengthens me. I choose restoration. I repeat, rest fuels me, stillness strengthens me. I choose restoration. Beautiful souls, rest isn't a luxury, it's your power source. Take it, honor it, and watch how much stronger you rise. Remember that quote that we talked about, I can't remember her name. I think it's Anne Lamar, but it says, Look, everything will work if you unplug it for a few minutes. Even you. That's it for self-care Saturday, my friends. Be good to yourself, beautiful souls. I'm Dr. Derek Sweet. I'll see you tomorrow for Slowdown Sunday. If you'd like to contact me, you can feel free to contact me on X, contact me on LinkedIn, contact me on Threads and on YouTube. Be blessed.