Do You Need A Permission Slip for Mental Health?

When going through Mental Health struggles, you have to give yourself permission to receive, especially from God.

Every Tuesday morning, I travel to a garden in a small rural area called Clevedon. I leave early to beat rush hour traffic but also to get a few moments on the top of a hill overlooking the valley.

This is what I saw this morning.

Beautiful isn’t it.

Did you hear the pheasants calling out to each other?

A few weeks ago I watched a wave of mist move its way down the valley. It was like watching a wave at the beach. I imagined an angel skimming the crest on a surfboard.

This is an important place and time for me. I give myself permission always to stop and receive something of what God has laid out below me.

It’s never the same. In the winter its pitch black, then in summer it’s crisp, clear and inviting.

I could rush pass this. Lots of cars do. I could get to work earlier, fill this time with activity. Instead, I give myself permission to stop and receive.

Life can be a grind.

If you’re going through intensive counselling or therapy, you know what I mean. Perhaps it’s relationship struggles, work relationships or just life. Maybe it’s the battle ground of thoughts and feelings.

Are you one of those people who never stops?

Perhaps you are driven by some internal slave master ‘shoulding’ on you.

Do you need a permission slip to stop and receive?

How would you react if Jesus just came up to you, in all your busyness, and asked to just sit for a while and enjoy the beautiful clevedon valley on a still summers morning?

What if?

What if Jesus gave you a permission slip to rest? 

What if Jesus came and said I want to wash your feet? I want to pamper you!

Just what would be your internal dialogue then?

In the grit and grind of life we need to make moments to pull out a permission slip and tell our internal slave masters to take a hike.

Come to me and I will give you rest—all of you who work so hard beneath a heavy yoke.
Wear my yoke—for it fits perfectly—and let me teach you;
for I am gentle and humble, and you shall find rest for your souls;
for I give you only light burdens. Matthew 11:28

Here is what I would like you to do.

1. Get a piece of paper.
2. Write on it these words ‘I give you permission to rest’ – Jesus
3. Make a time when you will just stop and receive the gift of rest.
4. If you would like, post a picture of your permission slip on social media.

Questions to answer and leave a comment below

1. Where can you find some time for a rest?
2. What are you internal slave masters telling you and why?

Quotes to consider

• There is more to life than increasing its speed. Mahatma Gandhi
• Take time to smell the roses
• There’s a kind of a wholeness that’s missing when you try to live your life always in that place of perfection or striving. Louis Newman

Barry Pearman

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