344: How to DIY Your Own Rest Retreat (When Getting Away Feels Impossible)
Do you long for deep rest but feel like getting away just isn’t realistic in this season? In this episode, let’s talk about how to create your own version of a rest retreat—right where you are!
We’ll explore how to design intentional rhythms of rest that meet your physical, emotional, spiritual, and creative needs. I believe we can all find practical ways to build small, sustainable rest into life and experience real replenishment even when extended time away feels impossible!
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:
[00:00] Why Neglecting Rest Eventually Affects Your Body, Emotions, and Relationships
[03:00] Why Forced Rest Is Not the Same as Chosen, Intentional Restoration
[07:00] What Is a “DIY Rest Retreat” and Why Does It Matter?
[08:00] What Does True Rest Look Like for You in This Season?
[10:00] The Different Types of Rest: Physical, Mental, Emotional, Spiritual, Creative, Social, and Sensory
[14:00] How Do You Discern Which Kind of Rest You Need Most Right Now?
[16:00] Why Superficial Dopamine Hits Don’t Replenish the Soul
[18:00] How Can You Design Rest That Leaves You Truly Filled Instead of Drained?
[19:00] Why Starting Small Creates Sustainable Rhythms of Restoration
[24:00] How Creativity, Solitude, and Time with God Deepen Soul Renewal
[26:00] Why Understanding Your “Why” Makes Rest a Spiritual Priority
[28:00] How Do You Begin Designing Your Own Personal Rest Retreat?
[00:00] Why Neglecting Rest Eventually Affects Your Body, Emotions, and Relationships
When rest is continually postponed, we see the effect of the lack of rest showing up in our nervous systems, our moods, our patience, and our capacity to connect. Over time, exhaustion doesn’t just feel physical; it becomes emotional and relational.
We may not even be away we’re lacking rest until these effects show up. In fact, ongoing depletion often looks like increased reactivity, emotional numbness, resentment, or withdrawal.
These often happen not because of a lack of faith or discipline, but because the body and soul were never designed to function without restoration.
It’s also important for us to recognize that rest isn’t a reward for doing enough, but It’s a requirement for being well.
[03:00] Why Forced Rest Is Not the Same as Chosen, Intentional Restoration
There’s a difference between collapsing and being restored. Have you seen this difference in your life?
Forced rest happens when burnout, illness, or emotional overload finally shut things down. I experienced this in 2017 when I endured a sudden medical crisis that nearly took my life. I had ignored my need for rest for too long, and I’d pushed down all sorts of feelings… until they popped up in a big way and forced me to deal with them.
However, chosen rest is different. It happens when we intentionally create space before the breaking point. It is about creating regular rhythms of rest based on continually noticing how our body is feeling.
One is reactive. The other is formative.
Simply stopping isn’t the same as being renewed. Scrolling, zoning out, or numbing may give momentary relief, but they don’t address what’s actually depleted. That’s why so many of us are stuck in these non-rested cycles. We may stop for a short period of time, but we’re using that time not to engage in restful activities but to simply cease.
Restoration begins when rest is approached with awareness, purpose, and openness to what our bodies and souls truly need.
Not all time off is restful. Have you ever experienced this?
Many vacations are packed with activity, stimulation, social energy, and expectations. They’re exciting! They’re fun! But here’s the problem: although they change the scenery, the pace doesn’t change. These sorts of vacations entertain the mind but never quiet the nervous system… and that’s what is required for a rest retreat.
Do you often return from trips needing another break? Real rest requires more than escape. It requires rhythms that calm the body, create margin, and allow space for reflection, presence, and internal settling.
[07:00] What Is a “DIY Rest Retreat” and Why Does It Matter?
A DIY rest retreat isn’t about recreating someone else’s experience. It’s about building intentional space for restoration inside your real life.
Instead of waiting for the perfect season, the perfect location, or the perfect schedule, this framework invites you to design moments of retreat that are accessible, flexible, and deeply personal.
Here’s the great news: a retreat doesn’t have to be days away. It can begin with an afternoon. A morning. Even a few protected hours.
What makes it a retreat is not the length, it’s the posture. It’s about stepping out of output mode. Choosing slowness. Creating space to receive.
[08:00] What Does True Rest Look Like for You in This Season?
Rest is not one-size-fits-all.
What fills my rest quotient may not fill yours. And what replenishes you in one season may not touch what’s depleted in another.
True rest begins with discernment, noticing where we are tired, recognizing how stress is showing up, and acknowledging what kind of restoration our lives are actually asking for.
This is why it’s so important we learn to discern which type of rest we need before we plan! We must pay attention before we fill the calendar.
Let’s talk about how to let your body, emotions and spiritual hunger inform the kind of retreat you design.
[10:00] The Different Types of Rest: Physical, Mental, Emotional, Spiritual, Creative, Social, and Sensory
Rest is multi-dimensional, and it’s helpful to consider how we can receive rest through different parts of our being.
We can be physically rested and emotionally drained. We can be spiritually engaged and mentally exhausted. Or we can be socially full and creatively empty.
This is why it’s important to understand the different types of rest: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, creative, social, and sensory.
One mistake many women make is that they often try to solve rest depletion in one area with restful activities from another. For example, sleep doesn’t always restore creativity. Solitude doesn’t always settle the nervous system. Community doesn’t always quiet the mind.
Understanding these categories helps us design rest that actually matches what’s depleted.
[14:00] How Do You Discern Which Kind of Rest You Need Most Right Now?
At the risk of repeating myself, discernment becomes the foundation of a meaningful retreat.
Instead of defaulting to what’s easiest or most familiar, ask yourself: Where do my energy levels feel thin? Where am I most reactive? In what ways do I feel numb, strained, or disconnected?
These patterns point to the unique rest needs for that season. Our irritations and depletion zones can reveal our limits. Our longings often reveal what hasn’t been tended.
And this is a good thing, because from that awareness, we can make rest targeted instead of generic. Targeted rest brings restoration!
[16:00] Why Superficial Dopamine Hits Don’t Replenish the Soul
It’s important to note that not everything that relieves stress is actually restful and restoring.
Our world is full of quick hits of pleasure that can distract from fatigue, but not heal it. These “pleasure hits” of dopamine often stimulate rather than soothe. They fill time without filling the soul.
This is why it’s important to distinguish between consumption and restoration. True rest doesn’t just interrupt stress. It resets capacity and steadies the nervous system. True rest brings you back into yourself instead of pulling you further out.
[18:00] How Can You Design Rest That Leaves You Truly Filled Instead of Drained?
Rest becomes transformative when it’s designed with intention.
I encourage you to build your rest retreat around activities that calm, nourish, and open space rather than overstimulate. Choose rhythms that slow the body and environments that quiet the senses. Bring in practices that invite presence instead of performance.
Remember this isn’t the “pack everything into one week” sort of time. It’s asking “what sort of rhythms and activities would truly bring relief to those areas where I feel most depleted”?
This is powerful because the focus shifts from “What sounds nice?” to “What actually restores me?”. It also keeps our rest retreat a bespoke experience designed for our needs in this season, honoring the ways that God is calling us to restoration.
[19:00] Why Starting Small Creates Sustainable Rhythms of Restoration
It’s also important to note that lasting change rarely begins with drastic overhauls.
Trying to jump straight into extended retreats can actually reinforce the belief that rest is rare, expensive, or inaccessible. I encourage you to start small. Starting small reshapes that story.
Once you’ve curated an afternoon of true rest, this becomes a proving ground that “Oh yes, this actually can work.” A morning with restful activities repeated over a few weeks becomes a do-able rhythm.
Small, repeatable experiences teach your nervous system that restoration is available, and this is critical when integrating any new pattern.
Here’s what I love best about your DIY rest retreats—you can scale them up or down as you need them and as you become more comfortable creating these restful experiences. What begins at home can grow into time away. As clarity grows around what restores you, rest planning becomes easier, not heavier.
This is great news because this is when the rest retreat becomes less about logistics and more about protecting what truly renews.
[24:00] How Creativity, Solitude, and Time with God Deepen Soul Renewal
Soul rest is not empty space. It is a receptive space for God to reveal himself and to restore.
These moments of soul rest often happen in unlikely places. For example, sometimes creativity opens us up to restoration and new connection in our walk with Christ. Solitude is often a huge part of soul rest since quiets what noise inflames.
Restoration deepens when rest includes room for beauty, reflection, stillness, and spiritual attentiveness, not as tasks, but as invitations back into wholeness.
[26:00] Why Understanding Your “Why” Makes Rest a Spiritual Priority
Here’s an especially critical (and often forgotten piece) of designing a rest retreat: Why does this rest matter?
When we understand why we’re investing the time, energy and finances to create these experiences, we are much more apt to not only pursue them but protect them.
In addition, when rest is only about productivity, it’s easily sacrificed.
When rest is understood as stewardship, healing, and spiritual formation, it becomes a blessing that we want to steward and protect.
So, I encourage you to ask yourself, “why am I resting? How will make a difference in the areas where I feel the most strained and stressed?”
Rest is not just about feeling better or having time to escape the every day, but to live more grounded, connected, and emotionally present. This “why” anchors your boundaries and gives rest meaning beyond relief.
[28:00] How Do You Begin Designing Your Own Personal Rest Retreat?
So… let’s bring it all together! How can we DIY our own rest retreat?
First, notice what’s depleted, specifically acknowledging the type of rest needed. Next, choose one small, intentional step you’ll take to find that rest. Create space for this event in your schedule. Protect it. This helps restoration become relational instead of rare.
Remember, a DIY rest retreat isn’t about escaping our lives. It’s about restoring our capacities to live them well.
And if you’d like to see how to plan a rest retreat for yourself… you’re invited to join me (either in-person or virtually) for the San Diego Beach Retreat Feb 25 through Mar 1!
All retreat attendees will not only attend live teaching sessions with me, but they will receive a mini course with step-by-step details on how to DIY your own rest retreat.
Again, even if you can’t join us in person for the San Diego Beach Retreat, the virtual retreat ticket gives you information on how to set up your own rest retreat (and enjoy the teaching I’ll be doing live on rest).
The DIY Rest Course (as part of the virtual ticket for the SD Retreat) will help you discern what kind of rest you need, how to design your own personal rest retreat, and how to build rhythms of restoration that continue long after the retreat ends.
Whether in person or virtually, the invitation is the same: to move from survival rest into soul restoration and to learn how to carry that rhythm into everyday life. I hope you will join us!
To learn more, visit https://aliciamichelle.com/beach-retreat/
FREE GIFT FOR YOU: Get the 7-Day Course: Notice + Name Your Feelings
Learn the simple mindset tool that helps you understand what you’re really feeling, so you can stop spiraling and experience more peace!
Start the free course here: AliciaMichelle.com/feelings
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