Rest for me is more a spiritual thing than a physical thing. I genuinely don't believe people feel rested even if they sleep and eat well, as long as they don't connect with God.
This's a fact for me. I don't doubt that true rest is found when someone is spiritually well. Even a physically unrested person could feel rejuvenated when in the presence of God.
So for someone to say I'm resting or taking a vacation but not involve God in anyway, is merely being idle and isn't doing proper resting.
Now back to me, what I considered rest involved a bit of the body, a bit of the mind and a bit of the spirit.
Spiritually I wanted to bible study and connect more with God.
Physically I wanted to do some cardio every morning, avoid sugar completely, sleep well and care for my eyes. I also didn't want to attend any event.
Mentally I wanted to learn more, be smarter; so that involved reading books and writing about a few topics. I wanted my mind cleared of useless content like the news and endless feeds. I also wanted that digital FOMO out of my system. Another is to spend as little time digitally as possible and spend more time offline and in natural scenes.
So simply I wanted to avoid the internet as much as I can, read books instead, be physically active, avoid sugar and bible study.
This's a fact for me. I don't doubt that true rest is found when someone is spiritually well. Even a physically unrested person could feel rejuvenated when in the presence of God.
So for someone to say I'm resting or taking a vacation but not involve God in anyway, is merely being idle and isn't doing proper resting.
Now back to me, what I considered rest involved a bit of the body, a bit of the mind and a bit of the spirit.
Spiritually I wanted to bible study and connect more with God.
Physically I wanted to do some cardio every morning, avoid sugar completely, sleep well and care for my eyes. I also didn't want to attend any event.
Mentally I wanted to learn more, be smarter; so that involved reading books and writing about a few topics. I wanted my mind cleared of useless content like the news and endless feeds. I also wanted that digital FOMO out of my system. Another is to spend as little time digitally as possible and spend more time offline and in natural scenes.
So simply I wanted to avoid the internet as much as I can, read books instead, be physically active, avoid sugar and bible study.
Spiritual Rest
I have this problem that whenever I read any bible book, I would turn full on research mode. With commentaries, translations and notes and stuff. Which is completely fine and is great.
So despite that being so great I found myself tired just at the thought of bible studying because of all the things I'd have to go through. I didn't like that at all, so I decided that for some books I will dive deeper into and others I'd just sit back and just read.
So that's what I did. Chose the book of Isaiah and sat back and read a chapter or two everyday. My God, isn't it so wonderful. I would read a chapter and then lose myself in tears, or be lost in the words I've read. I honestly can't describe it enough other than saying it was the Word of God and it healed so much, changed so much and made me rest well. So yes, I do recommend reading Isaiah.
I also recommend Genesis. It is so easy to forget that we're made out of dust. I had forgotten that. It's always a "Whoa" reaction for me whenever I visit back the creation process. So genesis really brings perspective into the universe and the nature of our reality.
Another deep and important thing is to have a therapy session with God. This is far greater than counciling and/or journaling. This is the moment where you would just sit and confess everything running through your mind to God. To actually cry out to Him about what's worrying or scaring you. I rarely do it but all the moments I've done it, I've became a healthier person, more confident and powerful. So this was one of the first things I've done and I highly recommend it.
I have this problem that whenever I read any bible book, I would turn full on research mode. With commentaries, translations and notes and stuff. Which is completely fine and is great.
So despite that being so great I found myself tired just at the thought of bible studying because of all the things I'd have to go through. I didn't like that at all, so I decided that for some books I will dive deeper into and others I'd just sit back and just read.
So that's what I did. Chose the book of Isaiah and sat back and read a chapter or two everyday. My God, isn't it so wonderful. I would read a chapter and then lose myself in tears, or be lost in the words I've read. I honestly can't describe it enough other than saying it was the Word of God and it healed so much, changed so much and made me rest well. So yes, I do recommend reading Isaiah.
I also recommend Genesis. It is so easy to forget that we're made out of dust. I had forgotten that. It's always a "Whoa" reaction for me whenever I visit back the creation process. So genesis really brings perspective into the universe and the nature of our reality.
Another deep and important thing is to have a therapy session with God. This is far greater than counciling and/or journaling. This is the moment where you would just sit and confess everything running through your mind to God. To actually cry out to Him about what's worrying or scaring you. I rarely do it but all the moments I've done it, I've became a healthier person, more confident and powerful. So this was one of the first things I've done and I highly recommend it.
Physical Rest
The biggest physical issues I've noticed on my self were that I consumed so much sugar, didn't move much and my sleep schedule wasn't healthy.
Another was I abused my eyes by blasting them with light from devices and would often find my eyes reddish when I'm about to sleep.
So basically I would wake up and then do a few pushups, jog, jump around and get my blood flowing right in the morning. It feels very good throughout the day.
For my eyes what I did was avoid devices alot and not use them in the dark. Also washing my face right before sleep helped a lot.
For sleep, I started noticing that I need to get a bit colder to fall asleep faster and I need to be in a well ventilated room. So I started opening my door a bit for air to flow in and get slightly colder and that was veryy good.
Sleep is essential, it's much more essential than what we make it to be. Far too often I would wake up thinking I had finished my sleep when infact I haven't. But on the days that I actually sleep well and fully I could feel the hormones and mood balancing throughout my day.
So with the cut of my digital time, being cold at night, and having cleaner air to breath, I was becoming a morning person for most of April. Which was so delightful.
The biggest physical issues I've noticed on my self were that I consumed so much sugar, didn't move much and my sleep schedule wasn't healthy.
Another was I abused my eyes by blasting them with light from devices and would often find my eyes reddish when I'm about to sleep.
So basically I would wake up and then do a few pushups, jog, jump around and get my blood flowing right in the morning. It feels very good throughout the day.
For my eyes what I did was avoid devices alot and not use them in the dark. Also washing my face right before sleep helped a lot.
For sleep, I started noticing that I need to get a bit colder to fall asleep faster and I need to be in a well ventilated room. So I started opening my door a bit for air to flow in and get slightly colder and that was veryy good.
Sleep is essential, it's much more essential than what we make it to be. Far too often I would wake up thinking I had finished my sleep when infact I haven't. But on the days that I actually sleep well and fully I could feel the hormones and mood balancing throughout my day.
So with the cut of my digital time, being cold at night, and having cleaner air to breath, I was becoming a morning person for most of April. Which was so delightful.
Sugar
I am the kind of guy who puts 3/4 spoons of sugar in my tea, twice a day. Then eat 2/3 pieces of chocolate or something sweet every single day. I don't normally drink soft drinks but when I go out with friends I do eat sweet desserts. So you can imagine how messed up my sugar and caffein intake was.
So with that I'm soooo happy to say that I was 30 days free of Sugar and Caffeine. 🎉
Avoiding sugar was literally one of the toughest things I did. It was sooo tempting. Friends would buy you stuff, family would get something sweet, everywhere you go there's something sweet to drool over. And then there was tea, that I used to stay up and for energy. That was also very difficult.
The biggest realization I had was that too many things that you wouldn't expect would have too much sugar in them. Infact I used to chug up flavored yogurt lots thinking it was healthy, but it wasn't it has a ton of sugar.
But once you quickly understand that there's sugar everywhere you start being on the lookout and saying no becomes an easier thing to do.
You'll also feel more comfort in your body, bladder, mood, energy and overall condition. I can't quiet explain it but there is an actual clarity that comes with avoiding sugar.
So now after all that 1 spoon of sugar in my tea is wayy too delicious. A piece of chocolate feels like a billion gallons of sugar and I can't stop being nauseated by the site of all of the sweet stuff I see while walking down the supermarket isle.
This was a huge accomplishment for me and I'm so happy about it. Cause I finally made it a habit now. I don't even think about it, I am actually disgusted by lots of sugar so I make the right decision unconsciously.
I am the kind of guy who puts 3/4 spoons of sugar in my tea, twice a day. Then eat 2/3 pieces of chocolate or something sweet every single day. I don't normally drink soft drinks but when I go out with friends I do eat sweet desserts. So you can imagine how messed up my sugar and caffein intake was.
So with that I'm soooo happy to say that I was 30 days free of Sugar and Caffeine. 🎉
Avoiding sugar was literally one of the toughest things I did. It was sooo tempting. Friends would buy you stuff, family would get something sweet, everywhere you go there's something sweet to drool over. And then there was tea, that I used to stay up and for energy. That was also very difficult.
The biggest realization I had was that too many things that you wouldn't expect would have too much sugar in them. Infact I used to chug up flavored yogurt lots thinking it was healthy, but it wasn't it has a ton of sugar.
But once you quickly understand that there's sugar everywhere you start being on the lookout and saying no becomes an easier thing to do.
You'll also feel more comfort in your body, bladder, mood, energy and overall condition. I can't quiet explain it but there is an actual clarity that comes with avoiding sugar.
So now after all that 1 spoon of sugar in my tea is wayy too delicious. A piece of chocolate feels like a billion gallons of sugar and I can't stop being nauseated by the site of all of the sweet stuff I see while walking down the supermarket isle.
This was a huge accomplishment for me and I'm so happy about it. Cause I finally made it a habit now. I don't even think about it, I am actually disgusted by lots of sugar so I make the right decision unconsciously.
Dagmawi Babi
Spiritual Rest I have this problem that whenever I read any bible book, I would turn full on research mode. With commentaries, translations and notes and stuff. Which is completely fine and is great. So despite that being so great I found myself tired…
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Mental Rest
I'd say the most complicated kind of rest is for your mind. It's harder to teach your mind to follow a new principle than your body or spirit. Simply because your body can be conditioned and your spirit has the holy spirit. The mind tho is very tough.
The best thing I wanted to do for my mind was to protect it from so much irrelevant and unintentional information and to protect it's attention. That started by avoiding the news.
The news was something I first started avoiding. I deleted all the news channels. Every single one and yet I lacked nothing for the whole month. Infact the most important news were the ones I couldn't avoid and they made their way to me. So even now I'm not part of any news channel.
It's when you actually avoid the news you'll understand than it's a cycle that repeats itself every single day. The same issues taking form in different things and the media abusing it completely. Filled with assumptions and lies, manipulation and judgement.
So I avoided it. Simple as that. And it felt sooooo good. Nothing is as useless as modern day news. I'd rather sit and count rice than actually read through the news.
I'd say the most complicated kind of rest is for your mind. It's harder to teach your mind to follow a new principle than your body or spirit. Simply because your body can be conditioned and your spirit has the holy spirit. The mind tho is very tough.
The best thing I wanted to do for my mind was to protect it from so much irrelevant and unintentional information and to protect it's attention. That started by avoiding the news.
The news was something I first started avoiding. I deleted all the news channels. Every single one and yet I lacked nothing for the whole month. Infact the most important news were the ones I couldn't avoid and they made their way to me. So even now I'm not part of any news channel.
It's when you actually avoid the news you'll understand than it's a cycle that repeats itself every single day. The same issues taking form in different things and the media abusing it completely. Filled with assumptions and lies, manipulation and judgement.
So I avoided it. Simple as that. And it felt sooooo good. Nothing is as useless as modern day news. I'd rather sit and count rice than actually read through the news.
Algorithmic Feeds
Algorithmic feeds are so messed up even when they're for the right things. The fact that you open TikTok/Twitter/YouTube and be exposed to so much attention grabbing content, can't help but read the title and captions is such a subtle form of slavery.
It is so messed up to me that I can't NOT read the titles of YouTube videos, or the captions of tweets. I literally can't avoid it. Then on TikTok after a few more minutes, I literally can't quit the app. I can hear my brain telling me to leave but I physically can't do it. HOW MESSED UP IS THAT???
Normally I don't watch TikTok or Reels, my main issue is YouTube. I thought that because the content I consume was long form engineering and tech content it doesn't count as a negative addiction.
But boy was I wrong. I would have so much work to go through but I'd spend hours watching YouTube. At some point it even became a game like "Let's see how many of these tabs I could close today" kind of game.
So I installed this extension (I'm on Zen Browser)
• https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-recommended-videos
The difference was so clear. I literally watched 10-15 times less videos when my feed was gone and I only searched and relied on my notifications.
Relying on the notifications also helped me curate what I actually cared about. I unsubscribed to so many channels, and only started getting notifications from a few I cared about.
Now it's an actual habit, I don't feel like I'm missing out at all. I started using that saved time on other useful things too.
Algorithmic feeds are so messed up even when they're for the right things. The fact that you open TikTok/Twitter/YouTube and be exposed to so much attention grabbing content, can't help but read the title and captions is such a subtle form of slavery.
It is so messed up to me that I can't NOT read the titles of YouTube videos, or the captions of tweets. I literally can't avoid it. Then on TikTok after a few more minutes, I literally can't quit the app. I can hear my brain telling me to leave but I physically can't do it. HOW MESSED UP IS THAT???
Normally I don't watch TikTok or Reels, my main issue is YouTube. I thought that because the content I consume was long form engineering and tech content it doesn't count as a negative addiction.
But boy was I wrong. I would have so much work to go through but I'd spend hours watching YouTube. At some point it even became a game like "Let's see how many of these tabs I could close today" kind of game.
So I installed this extension (I'm on Zen Browser)
• https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-recommended-videos
The difference was so clear. I literally watched 10-15 times less videos when my feed was gone and I only searched and relied on my notifications.
Relying on the notifications also helped me curate what I actually cared about. I unsubscribed to so many channels, and only started getting notifications from a few I cared about.
Now it's an actual habit, I don't feel like I'm missing out at all. I started using that saved time on other useful things too.
Do you know what other thing is such an attention thieve? — Notifications!
It was on day 1 of April that I turned all notifications off system wide. Probably top 3 best decisions I've made in April. I still have it off.
Normally it was on so I don't miss anything and I could be the first on site for whatever news or work stuff. Now I realize that not much is missing and infact everything you cared about needed no notification.
People think only posts are optimized for attention grabbing, you forget that notifications are made the same way too.
So remember to shut down all those notifications and only open an app when you want to. Opening an app has to be an active decision not an manipulated one.
Another amazing thing I did on mobile was use a launcher called Niagra Launcher. It was a minimal launcher that lets you set a few of your most used apps Infront and hides the rest in a search screen. So when you open your phone you literally have to look for the app you need instead of mindlessly open it out of habit.
Finally, remember to avoid social media or actually ration time for them. You do not need to be on Twitter in the morning and night, you can just check at the end of the day. Just try avoiding social media feeds as much as you possibly can.
It was on day 1 of April that I turned all notifications off system wide. Probably top 3 best decisions I've made in April. I still have it off.
Normally it was on so I don't miss anything and I could be the first on site for whatever news or work stuff. Now I realize that not much is missing and infact everything you cared about needed no notification.
People think only posts are optimized for attention grabbing, you forget that notifications are made the same way too.
So remember to shut down all those notifications and only open an app when you want to. Opening an app has to be an active decision not an manipulated one.
Another amazing thing I did on mobile was use a launcher called Niagra Launcher. It was a minimal launcher that lets you set a few of your most used apps Infront and hides the rest in a search screen. So when you open your phone you literally have to look for the app you need instead of mindlessly open it out of habit.
Finally, remember to avoid social media or actually ration time for them. You do not need to be on Twitter in the morning and night, you can just check at the end of the day. Just try avoiding social media feeds as much as you possibly can.
With my days spent having less digital time I quickly got bored. There wasn't much to do other than work.
So the best possible use of my time was reading books. All kinds of books. From spiritual to secular, from fiction to non-fiction, from short stories to long books.
I am a parallel reader, I don't wait until I complete one book instead I read multiple at once so I've progressed so much in all these books and more. So in April and up until today, I have been reading the most than any other month of my life.
The weird thing about books is that when you first start reading you think you're wasting time and getting a page done seems like the biggest task ever.
It is when you actually keep doing it that you become a fast reader and infact focus more on the meanings of the sentences and dive into the depth of the story instead of the pages and words.
Turns out you learn SO MUCH in a single book than weeks of scrolling online. What's also unique about this knowledge is that it remains in you. Reading a book is almost like getting knowledge tattooed into your mind.
Me and my closest friend were getting eachother books and challenged ourselves to read even more. And it was time spent beautifully.
Now every single night before I sleep, I read something, either a short story or continue one of the long ones. It has really been my favorite thing to do all this time. It sharpened my thoughts, and some even completely changed my perspective of the world. Which is what I've wanted. So yes, I recommend reading.
So the best possible use of my time was reading books. All kinds of books. From spiritual to secular, from fiction to non-fiction, from short stories to long books.
I am a parallel reader, I don't wait until I complete one book instead I read multiple at once so I've progressed so much in all these books and more. So in April and up until today, I have been reading the most than any other month of my life.
The weird thing about books is that when you first start reading you think you're wasting time and getting a page done seems like the biggest task ever.
It is when you actually keep doing it that you become a fast reader and infact focus more on the meanings of the sentences and dive into the depth of the story instead of the pages and words.
Turns out you learn SO MUCH in a single book than weeks of scrolling online. What's also unique about this knowledge is that it remains in you. Reading a book is almost like getting knowledge tattooed into your mind.
Me and my closest friend were getting eachother books and challenged ourselves to read even more. And it was time spent beautifully.
Now every single night before I sleep, I read something, either a short story or continue one of the long ones. It has really been my favorite thing to do all this time. It sharpened my thoughts, and some even completely changed my perspective of the world. Which is what I've wanted. So yes, I recommend reading.
Here is my 2025 Reading List
• https://whip-aluminum-d13.notion.site/Reading-List-Published-1eef7afd90a280918113eadab9ffbc1a
I will see how many of these I will cross of my list by next April and I'm sure there will be new ones in here and remove some of these.
#ReadingList #Books
@Dagmawi_Babi
• https://whip-aluminum-d13.notion.site/Reading-List-Published-1eef7afd90a280918113eadab9ffbc1a
I will see how many of these I will cross of my list by next April and I'm sure there will be new ones in here and remove some of these.
#ReadingList #Books
@Dagmawi_Babi
I can't stress this enough — the more you read and get comfortable with different styles of writings and story tellings, the more you appreciate the Bible.
Every single time I go back to reading a book in the Bible I get blown away by how it's not merely literature and how it surpasses in depth and story telling, in poetry and maturity than all of the books I read. It's honestly astounding.
Every single time I go back to reading a book in the Bible I get blown away by how it's not merely literature and how it surpasses in depth and story telling, in poetry and maturity than all of the books I read. It's honestly astounding.