Book Review | Rhythms of Renewal by Rebekah Lyons
Hi friends! in today’s episode, I’m reviewing one of my absolute favorite books - Rhythms of Renewal. This book has been out for a while but I have found myself going back to it again and again as it is just so full of wisdom and practical advice. I know you will find it so helpful and encouraging as well. Let’s get into it!
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Rhythms of Renewal is a book written by Rebekah Lyons in which she shares her personal experience of walking through intense seasons of anxiety in her life and the rhythms she has used in her own life to return to purpose and peace. I actually read this book when it first came out a few years ago but have found myself referencing it again and again. I have often recommended this book to my clients because of the way that it beautifully explains the holistic nature of how physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health overlap.
The book is divided up into four Rhythms - Rest, Restore, Connect, and Create so I thought I’d share a few of my biggest takeaways from each of those sections.
Rest Rhythm
This section starts off saying something so simple but makes such a great point - “We are restless when we rest less. We weren't created for this nonstop pace. We were designed in God’s image, and even God himself rested.” As I said, this idea is so simple but also so countercultural right now. Rest is not the thing that is prioritized - hustle is prioritized and set as some kind of gold standard. Rest is often seen as a weakness. The old saying “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” comes to mind.
She goes on to say that “Rest precedes blessing. We don’t have to earn rest; we run fueled by a posture of rest.” I love this idea - we work from rest, not rest from work. It totally flips our normal perspective on its head and leaves us with a fresh priority for rest.
She encourages us to learn to prioritize the rhythm of rest by taking inventory of our lives - taking a deeper look at what’s working and what’s not; silencing some of the noise all around us by participating in a tech detox and setting up healthy boundaries for the media input into our lives; getting reacquainted with silence and learning to be comfortable with ourselves - our thoughts, dreams, failures, and desires; and doing the heart work of confessing and healing many of the things we stuffed down for too long.
She closes this section by talking about practicing a weekly Sabbath. In one of my favorite parts of that chapter she says, “We cannot run if we cannot rest. Taking a rest isn’t a sign of weakness. Yet our culture whispers the opposite: if we try harder, work smarter, make the right career moves, get that next degree, work overtime, connect with influencers, and go for our dreams, we just might live a life of significance. But God declares we are already chosen, beloved, appointed, and set apart. He ordered our lives with purpose and intention. We don’t need to hustle to prove something God says is already true. Your value as a human being isn’t found in what you produce; it’s found in who you are in Christ - a person designed in the image of God to glorify him forever. From the beginning, God designed his creation to be more abundant, fulfilled, and joyful when we work from a place of rest and renewal.”
Restore Rhythm
“Once we have embraced a consistent rhythm of rest, we find the potential to be restored”. The next several chapters explore ways to renew, replenish, and pour back into our now rested selves.
Starting with giving ourselves permission to let go of some control and learn to play again. One of my favorite quotes from this chapter says, “It’s play that breaks us out of our stressful routines and rejuvenates us. It’s play that so often stores our freedom and joy.” “We can allow play to show us that everything won’t fall apart when we let go and give ourselves a little space and freedom.”
In this section, she also shares how caring for her body by fueling it with healthy foods and releasing things through working out and walking helped restore her mental and emotional health.
The first two rhythms, rest and restore, are input rhythms - ways that we pour into ourselves; and the last two rhythms, connect and create, are output rhythms - ways that we pour into others.
Connect Rhythm
Once we begin to feel the rewards of rest and restoration, we will then have something to offer others around us. Something that fuels our ability to connect. As Rebekah says in the intro of this section, “we were created for connection, and when we are closely knit within our community, we are at our best, flourishing and full of life.”
She encourages us to be the friend that we wish we had rather than feeling sorry for ourselves or getting caught up in what we feel that we lack in our friendships. She shares a time when she was craving a deep, authentic connection with others and in a season of feeling lonely. She says “If I wanted a trusted circle, I’d need to be trustworthy myself. If I wanted an authentic friend, I’d need to be authentic myself.”
In the chapter on leading with vulnerability, she says this quote that I think is so helpful when thinking about the importance of connecting with others: “The enemy of our souls wants us to be isolated and alone. He knows that when we’re isolated, we’re easy prey. Why? When we’re alone and vulnerable, we feel afraid. When we’re together and vulnerable, we become brave. A brave group of vulnerable people acting together in faith is not easily overcome by anxiety and stress.”
The chapters on face-to-face interaction and the importance of physical touch were such good reminders - especially after what feels like the longest year where we couldn’t do those things. She says, “All of us need physical touch. We were made for connection, and when feelings of loneliness, isolation, and depression start to creep in, our bodies long for a touch more than ever. A hug can go a long way, and science bears this out. When we hug, our brain released the neurotransmitter oxytocin, which promotes feelings of contentment and reduces anxiety and stress. In addition, hugging stimulates dopamine and serotonin production in the body and keeps depression at bay.” She goes on to say that, “Momentary touches - whether an exuberant high five, or a warm hand of the shoulder, can communicate an even wider range of emotion than gestures or expressions, and some times do so more quickly and accurately than words.”
Create Rhythm
The last rhythm Rebekah explains is the create rhythm. In this section, she talks about using our specific talents, skills, and passions to live deeper into our God-given purpose and to create something that blesses Him and the world around us.
In the chapter about learning to dream again, she says, “Much of our anxiety and stress is created by the purposelessness of our lives. In that purposelessness, we drift from entertainment to entertainment, never finding the peace and fulfillment that we need. We lose time and energy because busyness distracts us from the most important things. But if there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s that we were made for more. We were designed to dream and to take responsibility for those dreams. We were made for meaning.
She also states in the chapter on Recovering Your Passion, “Each of us is made for something specific, given a particular passion by God so we can partner with him in creating and constructing the Kingdom. It’s a belief backed by Scripture, which indicates that each of us has a different role, a different passion. When we discover that passion when we live into it, we become more alive.”
She also shares in the final few chapters of the book about the effects that working with our hands and learning new skills have on anxiety. She shares a quote from Psychology Today that says, “Research has shown that hand activity from knitting to woodworking to growing vegetables or chopping them are useful for decreasing stress, relieving anxiety, and modifying depression. Functioning hands also foster a flow in the mind that leads to spontaneous joyful, creative thought.” She shares that “In a very real way, working with our hands relives the mind.”
If you can’t tell - I love so much about this book! I love that it’s filled with ways to care for all areas of our health, bringing peace and purpose back into our lives, but done so from a Kingdom perspective and based on Scripture. If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend it. You can find it on Amazon or Audible, if audiobooks are more your jam. You can also find her Rhythms of Renewal 90-day Planner that helps you put each of these rhythms into practice in your day-to-day life.
I’ll leave you today with this encouragement that Rebekah wrote in the final chapter of the book, “Let’s live into these blessed rhythms to rest, restore, connect, and create. Let’s quiet inner chaos and make room for flourishing. Let’s establish daily habits that keep up mentally and physically strong. When we do, we cultivate the vibrant life we were meant to live. We take charge of our emotional health and inspire our loved ones to do the same. We find joy through restored relationships in our families and communities. If we partner together, we can make a difference in the world around us. We can walk in confidence as we offer our unique gifts to one another. We can become the carriers of peace our world longs to see.”
