Running on Empty

Marylayo: 00:00:03

Welcome to Marylayo Talks, a podcast that discusses mental health and

Marylayo: 00:00:08

spiritual wellbeing.

Marylayo: 00:00:10

Before we jump in, there may be episodes that

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are particularly sensitive to some listeners, and if that applies, then I hope you'll be

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able to join me whenever you feel ready and able.

Marylayo: 00:00:24

You.

Marylayo: 00:00:26

Today's guest is someone I've known for many years, fola Oyeleye.

Marylayo: 00:00:31

He experienced burnout some years ago.

Marylayo: 00:00:34

Now, Follah is a trustee and church consultant

Marylayo: 00:00:37

and also leads an online group that I'm involved in transforming community.

Marylayo: 00:00:42

And I started off by asking Fola, what's burnout?

Fola: 00:00:47

Thank you so much, Mary, for having me.

Fola: 00:00:50

Some of the symptoms that anyone that has

Fola: 00:00:53

experienced burnout or is experiencing it would have experienced includes that feeling

Fola: 00:00:59

of feeling hopeless, that feeling of feeling as though there's no way out, that feeling of

Fola: 00:01:07

tiredness.

Fola: 00:01:09

And also perhaps you find yourself snapping on

Fola: 00:01:13

people on matters which ordinarily you wouldn't have done so otherwise.

Fola: 00:01:21

And so I find myself when I've bunt out in the past, somebody might ask me a question, the

Fola: 00:01:26

answer I'll give them is a no, as opposed to a no. Because there was that sense in which I

Fola: 00:01:33

just wasn't open to dialogue, open to conversation.

Fola: 00:01:38

There's also a sense in which one might feel cynical about things, feeling as though

Fola: 00:01:44

expecting the worst of situations, rather than being optimistic, maybe feeling lonely or

Fola: 00:01:52

alone from people around you.

Fola: 00:01:55

But in my case, the feelings or the symptoms

Fola: 00:01:58

was physical tiredness, mental tiredness, mental exhaustion, just that sense in which I

Fola: 00:02:07

was no longer interested in the activities I would normally be interested in.

Fola: 00:02:11

And so those are the sort of physical symptoms that are all emotional symptoms that I

Fola: 00:02:15

experienced with burnout.

Marylayo: 00:02:18

Okay. How many times have you experienced burnout?

Marylayo: 00:02:22

Is it once, or is there been more occasions?

Fola: 00:02:25

So I would say it's been once, but recently there was a strong feeling of, am I

Fola: 00:02:32

going to experience what I experienced, let's say four years ago?

Marylayo: 00:02:34

Again, so four years ago, what did you have on your plate?

Fola: 00:02:38

I was working as operations manager for my local church.

Fola: 00:02:44

I was also pursuing a part time bachelor's degree in theology.

Fola: 00:02:51

Now, the job normally is five days a week.

Fola: 00:02:53

Now my study is one day a week, but to allow

Fola: 00:02:55

me to do both, I was given a time off during the week to go to studies.

Fola: 00:03:01

But as a way of making sure I still do the five days, I opted to serve on a Sunday as

Fola: 00:03:07

well.

Fola: 00:03:07

And so as part of the full time work, I was

Fola: 00:03:10

also leading a live stream team on a Sunday as part of the Sunday service.

Fola: 00:03:14

Outside of that, I was leading a discipleship group of about twelve to 16 people.

Fola: 00:03:19

Yeah, these were the key activities I was involved in.

Marylayo: 00:03:22

Okay, so it became a lot.

Marylayo: 00:03:23

At what point did you actually start

Marylayo: 00:03:26

experiencing the symptoms that you mentioned earlier?

Fola: 00:03:29

Because I was in this constant routine of Monday to Friday, working out of that one

Fola: 00:03:33

of those days I was studying.

Fola: 00:03:34

And as you know, getting a degree is not just

Fola: 00:03:36

about going to classes.

Fola: 00:03:37

You need to also do the work or the coursework

Fola: 00:03:41

or the essays that you give in.

Fola: 00:03:42

And so my weekends, for example, my Saturdays,

Fola: 00:03:45

I spent that sometimes in the library on a Thursday or Friday night.

Fola: 00:03:50

That was when the discipleship group happened.

Fola: 00:03:51

And of course on a Sunday, that's when I was

Fola: 00:03:54

serving or leading the team that was doing the live stream.

Fola: 00:03:57

And what brought her on the bra now was the fact that all these activities were piecing

Fola: 00:04:02

themselves regularly and there was no outlet to take time off.

Fola: 00:04:06

So even though I might take time off work, the time of work was spent in the library or

Fola: 00:04:10

studying.

Fola: 00:04:11

The repetitiveness of this activities just

Fola: 00:04:13

meant that I wasn't having enough rest.

Fola: 00:04:15

I wasn't cultivating the Christian habits of

Fola: 00:04:18

praying, I wasn't cultivating the Christian habits of fasting, of reading the scriptures,

Fola: 00:04:23

that sense in which getting a lot of inputs wasn't really there.

Fola: 00:04:26

And on top of that as well, I think I was also going through mental health related

Fola: 00:04:30

challenges.

Fola: 00:04:31

I just felt helmed in mentally the way it

Fola: 00:04:34

expressed itself was feeling tired all the time, not interested in a lot of things I was

Fola: 00:04:38

doing, even though some of those things, I pioneered them, brought everything to a halt.

Marylayo: 00:04:43

Okay, so when it came to a halt, what led to a change?

Fola: 00:04:46

Yeah, so the group that I was leading, I noticed that the numbers dropped.

Fola: 00:04:52

I just felt that the level of energy that I was bringing to the group was no longer there.

Fola: 00:04:57

Even you as a leader, you feel like you're just going through the motions.

Fola: 00:05:01

So the first thing that came to an end was the small group I was leading.

Fola: 00:05:04

And in my mind I just thought, you know what, I'm going to pause this because I don't have

Fola: 00:05:07

the energy to keep doing it.

Fola: 00:05:08

Now the same time, also coincidentally up

Fola: 00:05:12

until coincide with the same time in which I left that role with my local church.

Marylayo: 00:05:16

Okay.

Fola: 00:05:16

Now when I resigned from the role, my general desire to even volunteer with the

Fola: 00:05:23

church kind of ended as well.

Fola: 00:05:24

So I remember our senior minister then asking

Fola: 00:05:27

me, are there any activities that you'd like to get involved in?

Fola: 00:05:30

And my answer was no. Just thinking about the no. I didn't even give him a good reason for

Fola: 00:05:33

the no. I just gave it as a flat no. No, I don't want to get involved in anything.

Fola: 00:05:38

And that was just because internally I felt I'd given everything I could, not as the fault

Fola: 00:05:44

of the church, but just personally I didn't manage myself and so I didn't get involved in

Fola: 00:05:49

any activities with the local church.

Fola: 00:05:50

So that was a second one.

Marylayo: 00:05:52

Okay, so things dropped off.

Marylayo: 00:05:54

In terms of activities you're involved in, how

Marylayo: 00:05:57

did you or did you get to a better place in terms of how you felt getting interest back in

Marylayo: 00:06:05

being involved in stuff? What did you do to get you to a better place?

Fola: 00:06:09

The lack of activity actually helped.

Fola: 00:06:11

Not doing anything was one of the best things

Fola: 00:06:13

ever.

Fola: 00:06:14

Find that in that period of not doing

Fola: 00:06:16

anything, I started to have desires to do things again.

Marylayo: 00:06:19

Okay.

Fola: 00:06:19

The things I used to do, the desires came back.

Fola: 00:06:22

I started to find that actually, there's so many things I really want to do that I used to

Fola: 00:06:25

do again.

Fola: 00:06:26

I set up a new small group.

Fola: 00:06:28

And so that was one of the things that started as a result of just having that six to eight

Fola: 00:06:32

months of not doing anything, I was able to hear my own voice in the period of I rest, I

Fola: 00:06:37

was able to come to that place of feeling energized again, to move forward with things.

Marylayo: 00:06:42

Given that you had that experience burnout, and then you started getting more

Marylayo: 00:06:46

involved in other activities, did you put anything in place so that you wouldn't

Marylayo: 00:06:51

experience that burnout again?

Fola: 00:06:54

So in starting up a lot of those activities again, things just unraveled by

Fola: 00:06:59

themselves, just because the activity wasn't as demanding.

Fola: 00:07:02

And also my level of involvement wasn't necessarily the same as it used to be.

Marylayo: 00:07:06

Okay, so let's fast forward to now, because I know you as very much as an ideas

Marylayo: 00:07:12

person, and you're very driven and you're very ambitious.

Marylayo: 00:07:16

So from then to now, things have grown in terms of activities that you're involved in.

Marylayo: 00:07:24

So you now lead this online community group.

Marylayo: 00:07:28

And I know that you got more of a leadership

Marylayo: 00:07:30

role in your local church.

Marylayo: 00:07:32

You've got your, let's call it your nine to

Marylayo: 00:07:34

five job.

Marylayo: 00:07:36

And I know you do consultancy at the side.

Marylayo: 00:07:38

Is there anything else? Actually, you've got the trustee sorry, I'm

Marylayo: 00:07:43

smiling cheekily at Follow because he's very quiet and I'm wondering why.

Marylayo: 00:07:47

And you've got that trustee position for local charity.

Marylayo: 00:07:51

Am I missing anything else?

Fola: 00:07:52

You've said it all.

Fola: 00:07:53

I wish the way you've said it is the way it

Fola: 00:07:55

reflects on my time in the sense of you've said it very quickly, which I'm just hoping

Fola: 00:07:59

that it translates into the way the time I spend on all those things actually happens.

Marylayo: 00:08:05

Okay, so you've got those activities.

Marylayo: 00:08:07

There's quite a lot there.

Marylayo: 00:08:08

And I think it reflects what I mentioned

Marylayo: 00:08:11

earlier about you being ambitious.

Marylayo: 00:08:12

You've been quite driven, having ideas, being

Marylayo: 00:08:15

very involved in activity.

Marylayo: 00:08:17

So what did you learn from the first time

Marylayo: 00:08:20

being going out that you implemented or have or started to implement up to now?

Fola: 00:08:25

So compared to the first situation, and I've also reflect on this myself what has

Fola: 00:08:30

changed from, let's say, four to five years ago and now?

Fola: 00:08:33

I feel that the big change is one of the things I've learned, at least from that

Fola: 00:08:37

initial experience, is the need for rest.

Fola: 00:08:39

And so now I've implemented, at least I've put

Fola: 00:08:42

this into my routine, regular periods of rest.

Fola: 00:08:44

So on a Monday, for example, I go on this ten

Fola: 00:08:48

K walk, and I do religiously, even though I have things staring at me on my to do list,

Fola: 00:08:52

I'm like, no, you need to go on this walk because if you don't take this out, the things

Fola: 00:08:56

that are staring at you, you can actually do them.

Fola: 00:08:59

So that's one of the idea of resting for breaks and rest in my day to day routine.

Fola: 00:09:04

And also feel that I've grown as a person.

Fola: 00:09:06

Okay, compare my schedule now to the schedule

Fola: 00:09:09

that I had four years ago.

Fola: 00:09:10

I actually do a lot more compared to what I

Fola: 00:09:12

did previously.

Fola: 00:09:13

I mean, more positions of leadership than I

Fola: 00:09:17

used to be back.

Fola: 00:09:18

I've grown as an individual.

Marylayo: 00:09:19

Okay, basically it's the walks that you've introduced and then also the fact that

Marylayo: 00:09:24

you feel like you've grown as a person to be able to manage that mode of work.

Marylayo: 00:09:29

Is there anything else that you've learned from before that you've introduced?

Fola: 00:09:34

Not so much learning from that previous experience.

Fola: 00:09:37

I think it's other things I've learned along the way.

Fola: 00:09:39

I think that the rest aspect is something I've learned from before.

Fola: 00:09:42

Yeah.

Fola: 00:09:42

So some of the things I've had to implement,

Fola: 00:09:44

which I've learned is the need to delegate.

Fola: 00:09:48

And what that means is, say, for example, the

Fola: 00:09:51

cleaning of a house.

Fola: 00:09:52

I've had to ask someone to help with that,

Fola: 00:09:55

especially you've got a cleanup.

Fola: 00:09:56

In other words.

Fola: 00:09:57

Yes, I have a cleaner now.

Fola: 00:09:59

That's one aspect.

Fola: 00:10:00

And then I've had to get a personal assistant, someone to help me with some of the things

Fola: 00:10:06

that I have on my plate that others can do.

Fola: 00:10:08

I remember once I had a physio appointment,

Fola: 00:10:10

which I couldn't make.

Fola: 00:10:12

I got them to call the physio to reschedule

Fola: 00:10:15

that appointment.

Fola: 00:10:15

Things, ideas that I've earned that I would

Fola: 00:10:17

like to spend time researching.

Fola: 00:10:19

So things like that, I've had to delegate it

Fola: 00:10:21

to them to do the research for me.

Fola: 00:10:23

Powering others to do things that is not

Fola: 00:10:25

unique to me is something else that I've learned to implement into my daily routine.

Fola: 00:10:30

And I'm learning also to say no, maybe not say no flat outs without an explanation.

Fola: 00:10:36

Somebody might say, oh, let's hang out this week.

Fola: 00:10:38

I would say, you know what, I really want to hang out, but I can't do that this week.

Fola: 00:10:41

And so I might propose some other times in future to make it happen.

Fola: 00:10:45

And so that I find that that's helping me, rather than trying to get everything done in

Fola: 00:10:49

one week, I'm having to delay some things too much later.

Fola: 00:10:52

And I know you mentioned this stuff about being ambitious and something a friend was

Fola: 00:10:57

mentioned, he said, Follow up, just write your ideas down.

Fola: 00:10:59

And so that's something I do now.

Fola: 00:11:01

So I've got a software called Trailer, as well

Fola: 00:11:05

as Microsoft Planner and so whenever I have new ideas, I tend to just write it down on

Fola: 00:11:11

those.

Marylayo: 00:11:11

Platforms, jot them down.

Marylayo: 00:11:13

That's a good way of someone like you, who's

Marylayo: 00:11:17

very driven, you've got ideas popping left, right and center, and it helps you, I guess,

Marylayo: 00:11:24

to put those somewhere and maybe think about what you can do with those ideas and when to

Marylayo: 00:11:30

move forward with those ideas.

Marylayo: 00:11:32

Because, yeah, there's a quite a conflict in

Marylayo: 00:11:34

terms of your nature in terms of ideas and wanting to run with it and being ambitious and

Marylayo: 00:11:39

driven.

Marylayo: 00:11:40

And then the practical side of things is

Marylayo: 00:11:43

there's only so many hours in a day and there's only so much you can do.

Marylayo: 00:11:48

And yeah, just being realistic about these kind of things.

Marylayo: 00:11:53

One thing you haven't mentioned, though, is, I don't know, just leisure time.

Marylayo: 00:11:59

And I'm not talking just about the walks, like spending time with people or sharing,

Marylayo: 00:12:06

communicating with friends, because I'm just mindful of having that balanced life.

Marylayo: 00:12:11

So not just being busy in all those activities and pursuing those activities, which is all

Marylayo: 00:12:15

well and good, but also really spending quality time with people, people you love,

Marylayo: 00:12:21

people that you like to be around, people that you can share and communicate what's going on.

Marylayo: 00:12:26

So do you incorporate any of that, even to an extent?

Fola: 00:12:30

I was wishing you never asked me that question, Mary, because now it's making me to

Fola: 00:12:35

think that actually you don't have anything that you do socially.

Marylayo: 00:12:40

Yeah. And I know you're a social bee.

Marylayo: 00:12:45

That's one thing I know about you.

Marylayo: 00:12:46

You're actually a social bee or an extrovert.

Marylayo: 00:12:49

So it's like I'm just noticing as we're talking that, okay, very busy in one sense,

Marylayo: 00:12:55

and you're putting in place things to create space and have that break.

Marylayo: 00:13:02

But when it comes to socializing and just sharing or maybe even offloading, yeah.

Fola: 00:13:07

It'S an interesting one because if you hadn't brought this up, it wouldn't have

Fola: 00:13:12

occurred to me to actually realize I haven't done a lot of these things in a while.

Marylayo: 00:13:16

Okay.

Fola: 00:13:17

In terms of social activities, it's actually significantly decreased, actually.

Fola: 00:13:21

So, as you said, the social be like to be around people.

Fola: 00:13:25

My love language is quality time with people.

Fola: 00:13:28

But one thing I've realized is I haven't done

Fola: 00:13:30

it as much as I would like to.

Fola: 00:13:33

And I think part of it is also because once

Fola: 00:13:35

I've finished all my to do list, there isn't much energy left to pursue all that.

Marylayo: 00:13:40

I'm not surprised.

Fola: 00:13:42

I know, but so now that you mentioned it, I think I probably have to make sure it

Fola: 00:13:45

comes back into things.

Fola: 00:13:47

But that said, and this can sound very

Fola: 00:13:51

selfish, so now if, let's say, for example, I want to go to the cinema, I don't even bother

Fola: 00:13:56

to reach out to anyone to say, Would you like to go to the cinema?

Fola: 00:13:58

So I just go by myself.

Fola: 00:14:00

And one of the reasons why I do it by myself

Fola: 00:14:02

is because I don't want to go through that process of no more trying to convince someone

Fola: 00:14:06

to come along or reschedule another time because they can't do this, fine, I just do

Fola: 00:14:10

it.

Fola: 00:14:11

And even this recently, I went to Prague for

Fola: 00:14:15

about a week.

Fola: 00:14:16

That was just me part of this idea of resting,

Fola: 00:14:19

bringing into place.

Fola: 00:14:20

Now, I'm mindful that I haven't actually

Fola: 00:14:22

answered any of your questions, but that social aspect, I would have to say it's taken

Fola: 00:14:27

the backseat at the moment.

Marylayo: 00:14:29

One of your skill sets has been very organized.

Marylayo: 00:14:31

It's just interesting about how you've got a strength in terms of admin stuff and

Marylayo: 00:14:37

organization.

Marylayo: 00:14:39

And you've also got a strength, I would say,

Marylayo: 00:14:42

in terms of being able to multitask because you've got a lot on your plate.

Marylayo: 00:14:47

And so it's just interesting.

Marylayo: 00:14:48

I'm very intrigued in terms of how you manage

Marylayo: 00:14:50

that and you bring that balance.

Marylayo: 00:14:54

For me, it's highlighted.

Marylayo: 00:14:55

The social aspect has kind of dipped, but it's work in progress.

Fola: 00:15:00

Absolutely.

Marylayo: 00:15:01

Yeah.

Fola: 00:15:02

And it's interesting also that on Instagram for the transforming community, I

Fola: 00:15:07

did a bio and I was boasting about how I had three barbecues last summer and how I intend

Fola: 00:15:13

to pull up the same fit this summer.

Fola: 00:15:16

And as I was typing that bio, I thought to

Fola: 00:15:18

myself, have you been serious? Can you actually do this again this year?

Fola: 00:15:22

I do recognize that need for recreation, and it's good that you actually brought it to my

Fola: 00:15:26

memory now.

Fola: 00:15:27

So thank you so much.

Fola: 00:15:28

It's something I'll definitely look into, making sure I do more recreational activities.

Fola: 00:15:32

But yes, I think the social life has kind of dipped, as you said.

Marylayo: 00:15:36

I guess mentally, because you are like even that example you've just given about

Marylayo: 00:15:41

having or hosted three barbecues last year, wanting to do the same this year, that's that

Marylayo: 00:15:47

ambitious side of you that can very easily contrast.

Marylayo: 00:15:51

So is there anything mentally that you I know you mentioned about putting ideas down.

Marylayo: 00:15:56

Is there anything that you do to almost, like, remind yourself that follow up, there you go

Marylayo: 00:16:02

again.

Marylayo: 00:16:04

Is this right?

Marylayo: 00:16:05

Is there anything that you do to almost like retrain yourself, your mind, your thinking,

Marylayo: 00:16:10

just to get you to have that reality check?

Fola: 00:16:13

Yeah. So prayer is something I'm prioritizing more now than before, to allow

Fola: 00:16:19

myself to align myself with God's purposes and also making sure I do the right thing.

Marylayo: 00:16:25

And I guess does that feed into when opportunities or ideas that you have come and

Marylayo: 00:16:31

say no? Or is that what kind of backs up that

Marylayo: 00:16:36

response?

Fola: 00:16:38

So there's an aspect of prayer that allows me to know what I should be doing.

Fola: 00:16:41

Okay, so that's one aspect.

Fola: 00:16:42

And there's the other aspect of prayer as

Fola: 00:16:44

well, which allows me, surprisingly, to not be anxious when things are not done.

Marylayo: 00:16:49

Okay.

Fola: 00:16:50

There's this famous text that says, do not be anxious for anything.

Fola: 00:16:54

But with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make your needs to God and when

Fola: 00:16:59

things are not done, I remind myself that I'm not the one in control, or at least life

Fola: 00:17:04

doesn't depend on me.

Fola: 00:17:04

So that anxiety of, oh, I've not been able to

Fola: 00:17:07

do everything on my to do list comes off me because I know everything doesn't necessarily

Fola: 00:17:12

depend on me doing everything, if you see what I mean.

Fola: 00:17:15

Two ways in which prayers featured.

Fola: 00:17:17

So knowing what to do, but also taking it with

Fola: 00:17:19

an anxiety of, if I don't do this, it's not the end of the world.

Fola: 00:17:23

God is still in control.

Fola: 00:17:24

Before I was born, life moved on as it was.

Fola: 00:17:27

Long after I've gone, life was to continue to move on.

Fola: 00:17:29

And so let's just let God be in control.

Fola: 00:17:32

So, yeah, prayer has been one of the practical

Fola: 00:17:34

things I've started to do more often.

Fola: 00:17:36

The other one is also practicing stillness,

Fola: 00:17:39

which feels very similar to prayer.

Fola: 00:17:42

But this time around, I'm actually not saying

Fola: 00:17:43

anything and is actually just to sit down sometimes with a cup of tea or cup of water

Fola: 00:17:51

and just sit and not do anything, just be still.

Marylayo: 00:17:56

And how long do you do that for?

Fola: 00:17:58

So it's meant to be like on the Nova circumstance.

Fola: 00:18:02

I'm being ambitious, but this ambition hasn't actually materialized.

Marylayo: 00:18:05

Right?

Fola: 00:18:06

But when I've done it recently, it could be like 15 minutes.

Fola: 00:18:09

But I find that even in that 15 minutes, so many things are flooding my mind to, oh, I

Fola: 00:18:13

need to do this, I need to do that.

Fola: 00:18:14

But that's something I'm practicing more where

Fola: 00:18:17

I try.

Fola: 00:18:17

I use the word try.

Fola: 00:18:18

Not because I do it regular the league, but try not to hold on to any mobile device at

Fola: 00:18:22

that time and just sit still.

Fola: 00:18:26

There's a text in the Book of Psalms that

Fola: 00:18:28

talks about be still and know that I am God.

Fola: 00:18:30

And in other traditions, people might call it

Fola: 00:18:33

meditation, they might call it mindfulness, but I would just call it being steal, just not

Fola: 00:18:39

doing anything.

Fola: 00:18:40

And that is helping me to just be on track

Fola: 00:18:45

when it comes to some of the things that we've talked about.

Marylayo: 00:18:47

So if you could give yourself advice, or if you could give advice to someone

Marylayo: 00:18:53

who's experiencing burnout now, what are the key things, and I know you've kind of

Marylayo: 00:18:57

highlighted them along the way, what are the key things that you would emphasize?

Fola: 00:19:02

Rest is probably one of them.

Fola: 00:19:04

So rest can involve sleep.

Fola: 00:19:06

Rest can involve being still.

Fola: 00:19:08

As I mentioned, rest can involve not doing

Fola: 00:19:10

anything.

Fola: 00:19:11

Yeah.

Fola: 00:19:11

And it's interesting that you've asked me this question because I remember once I asked you,

Fola: 00:19:15

mary, can you please do this? Can you please do that?

Fola: 00:19:17

And in my mind, I was like, oh, Mary boy, you're free.

Fola: 00:19:19

You've got all this free slots.

Fola: 00:19:21

Put something else in.

Fola: 00:19:22

And I remember your response to me was, just because I'm free, doesn't mean, I guess the

Fola: 00:19:28

mind is not necessarily not thinking about things or it's not processing things outside

Fola: 00:19:32

of those active moments.

Fola: 00:19:35

At least that's the way I paraphrased what you

Fola: 00:19:37

said.

Fola: 00:19:38

I can't remember exactly what you said, but

Fola: 00:19:39

that's the interpretation of what you gave to me.

Fola: 00:19:43

And I also got the sense in which you said back to me that just because I haven't got a

Fola: 00:19:50

fixed activity, it doesn't mean I have to fill it up with an activity that sounds like me.

Fola: 00:19:56

Ever since that conversation, it's made me to also reflect just because there's a free slot

Fola: 00:20:01

here doesn't mean we need.

Marylayo: 00:20:02

To fill it up.

Fola: 00:20:05

Yeah, just be and so if there's one advice is rest.

Fola: 00:20:09

And of course, rest takes different forms.

Fola: 00:20:11

Rest could be sleeping.

Fola: 00:20:13

Rest can be being still.

Fola: 00:20:15

Rest could be not doing anything.

Fola: 00:20:18

Rest could be just going for a walk.

Fola: 00:20:21

But rest is important.

Fola: 00:20:23

If I think about a soil, if it's not cultivated, if you just leave the ground by

Fola: 00:20:30

itself, you find that after some time things will start to grow in it.

Fola: 00:20:35

And sometimes that's what rest does to us.

Fola: 00:20:37

That when we don't do anything and we just

Fola: 00:20:40

relax in, things naturally have a way of coming to life as a result of that time.

Fola: 00:20:44

So if there's one thing that would be one thing that I would recommend.

Fola: 00:20:47

Rest is important.

Fola: 00:20:49

It's very key.

Marylayo: 00:20:50

Well, follow.

Marylayo: 00:20:51

Thank you for the tips and the advice and

Marylayo: 00:20:55

sharing your story.

Marylayo: 00:20:57

And to those of you who are listening, I hope

Marylayo: 00:20:59

there's something that you've also been able to take away.

Marylayo: 00:21:02

Do keep well.

Marylayo: 00:21:04

And thank you for joining me on Marylayo

Marylayo: 00:21:06

Talks.

Marylayo: 00:21:15

Here�s a spiritual wellness tip that you can meditate on.

Marylayo: 00:21:19

One of the scriptures Fola mentioned was Philippians, chapter four, verses six to

Marylayo: 00:21:23

seven.

Marylayo: 00:21:24

And it reads, don't worry about anything.

Marylayo: 00:21:28

Instead, pray about everything.

Marylayo: 00:21:30

Tell God what you need and thank him for all

Marylayo: 00:21:33

he has done.

Marylayo: 00:21:34

Then you will experience God's peace, which

Marylayo: 00:21:36

exceeds anything we can understand here.

Marylayo: 00:21:40

Peace will guard your hearts and minds as you

Marylayo: 00:21:42

live in Christ Jesus.

Marylayo: 00:21:52

Thank you for listening.

Marylayo: 00:21:53

Do follow and join me again next time on Marylayo Talks beyond the Smile.