Greetings and welcome! We did it! We made it to self-care Saturday here on The Sweet Spot. I'm Dr. Derek Sweet, I'm your host. As you know, I'm a board-certified psychiatrist who specializes in high performance, and I love working with individuals who are striving to be the best version of themselves. Today on The Sweet Spot, we're going to dive in a bit into self-care. Now, all week long, we've been in deep action and movement and winning and trusting and finishing strong. So today it's about pivoting a bit to just pour in some love on the self. It's self-care sadly, and I want you to hear this clearly. Rest is not weak. Sometimes you have to find the strength to stop. You know, in a world that celebrates hustle and grinding, in a city that never sleeps, where I live, pressing pause can feel like falling behind. But the truth is, you weren't created to run unempted, but so many of us do. Sometimes when I have to go to bed and it's really late, if I make the mistake of taking that cell phone with me anywhere near the bed, there's always something else to do. There'll always be another task. And what I've found is that there are times when I'm not giving myself the permission to drift off to sleep because it feels like, oh my god, I can be doing so much more. There's so much more I can do. But that's not how God intended it for me. Because in the ancient wisdom, in the Psalms, it says, Beloved, I give you sleep. Beloved, I give you rest. God doesn't just allow rest. He doesn't just allow it, he gives it. It's a gift. Sleep. Stillness. A space to breathe, to surrender, to let go. These hot luxuries. There's signs of divine love. And here's the thing: you don't have to earn your rest. You just have to accept it for the gift that it is. Seeing rest as a gift we deserve. How's that? When was the last time you heard that? When was the last time somebody told you, hey, you should rest because that's the gift you deserve. In mindfulness, they say rest is not idleness. And to lie sometimes on the grass is by no means a waste of time. Nature doesn't rush and it doesn't apologize for taking its time. You never hear the winter sort of apologize for not become for becoming spring, or you don't hear trees explaining that they're growing. All of these things are happening around us very slowly, very deliberately. Morning turning into night, very deliberately, very quietly. Sometimes the most powerful reset is to be in silence, to be quiet, to take a step back, to not hurry. Doing less so we can be more. As Anne Lamotte's famous quote that I I've quoted here a few times for you, and you know I love this quote: almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you. You know, that cell phone that we plug in and we charge up, there's a lesson there for us. We charge those bad boys up the minute that the battery runs low. We have to, otherwise, the phone ain't gonna work. And this is the truth. So are we, we're like those machines in a way. We have to be recharged, we must be recharged because even the machines need downtime. Resetting isn't quitting, resetting isn't a problem, it isn't weak, it's recharging the very part of you that fuels your purpose and your energy. You can't give what you don't have, and when all your energy is depleted and you're you're running on empty, you don't have anything to give. And this is where irritation comes in, depression comes in, burnout, and a whole host of other things that I treat in my practice, so that's a whole other podcast. So, what does self-care look like for you today, my friend? Is it that we need more sleep? Maybe it's about sitting in silence. When was the last time you sat in silence for five minutes with yourself? Taking a breath in. Maybe it's just setting boundaries, saying no, so you can say yes to your own peace of mind. Sometimes when you say no, I can't go out with you, no, I'm not gonna take on that activity, you're actually saying yes to yourself. Some of us confuse busyness with value. We think it's because we're busy, busy, busy, busy all the time that we're there's more value in that. Your worth isn't your productivity, it's your presence. Yeah. Your worth isn't in your productivity, it's in your presence. So here's your self-care Saturday challenge. Let God love you through rest today. Take a nap, take a walk, take a break. I don't know what it looks like for you, but what I do know is that you have to be intentional about getting your recharge because even warriors like you need to lay down their armor and not be everything to everyone all the time. It's super important. Remember, God rested on the seventh day, and if God can rest, well, who are we? We need more rest. This is the sweet spot, and I know you can find some time to rest and have self-care today. You've got this. I believe in you, and I'll see you tomorrow for Slowdown Sunday. We're gonna keep it going here on the weekend. Love love and blessings. This is Dr. Derek Sweet, and I'm out.