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Hi, I'm Kerry McLeish!
I am the founder of Rest For Life. I am a trained Coach and Spiritual Director, and have a Diploma in Theology and Ministry with Durham University focussing on the issue of rest from every angle – personal, cultural, biblical, historical and spiritual.
Having recently moved to the beautiful Teme valley in Worcestershire, I am enjoying creating a place of rest for the weary and coaching those who are exhausted, to restore their energy for life, through rest.
Since experiencing exhaustion myself over fifteen years ago, I have been learning how to rest well. This has taken time, and ironically I have discovered, that learning to rest, is something you have to work at! However, I now know it is possible to live differently, more restfully.
So, I now bring together my skills in Coaching, Spiritual Direction, Nursing and Education to enable others to discover a healthy rhythm of rest and work for their lives too.
I have a husband and two adult children and a background of nearly twenty years’ experience in Nursing and Nurse Education. As well as my Rest For Life work, I am also involved with two charities. Family of Hope, a school for children with special needs in rural Uganda, and Imagine Foundation, which supports small charities across the UK.
In these articles, I cover all these questions and more.
Why is rest important?
Can you recover from living life exhausted?
How do you learn to rest well?
Why am I so passionate about rest?
Why Rest?
Rest is essential for us as humans as much today as it has ever been. Sleep alone is not enough. Like a good diet and regular exercise, effective rest is key to staying well, but unlike diet and exercise many of us don’t even know what a healthy and sustainable rhythm of rest might look like, let alone practice it.
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Although we may not always eat healthily, or exercise as much as we know would be good for us, at least we have an idea of what we are aiming at. Rest on the other hand is rarely discussed or on anyone’s agenda. There is often no one giving us permission to rest or showing us how to do it, especially in the fast paced, full on world in which so many of us live today.
I am passionate about helping people to find that healthy rhythm of rest and work that results in an energy for life that is sustainable both now and into the future.​
Whether you are living in a constant state of weariness, or feel you are on the downwards slope towards exhaustion, there is a way to find rest. Or if you are keeping your head above water at the moment but can see that the way you are working is not sustainable. I want you to know that a more restful way of living is possible. Rest is a skill and you can learn the art of intentional and effective rest so that you can recover, be restored and replenished giving you renewed energy for life. Once you recognise the intimate relationship between your work and rest you can discover the role that rest can play in helping you live your life to the full. Work and rest are part of a whole. It is easy to underestimate the difference it can make when we take rest seriously. Being well rested can increase your creativity, your productivity, your problem solving ability, your sense of fun and your ability to love others well and so much more. Taking time to rest also gives you the space to do those things that matter most to you and give meaning to life beyond work. It is possible to learn how to recognise the areas, physical, emotional, mental, social and spiritual, where your work depletes you and discover how to be restored in each of those areas. In addition, you can learn to recover in a timely way from the storms life throws at you because you have capacity in your tanks. You can find what a healthy rhythm of rest and work would look like for you in your particular situation and explore ways to overcome those factors that make rest so challenging for you. I would love to help you make that journey towards living well rested and full of energy. Enabling you to find the time and space in your life to rest that allows you to engage in those things that are life giving for you. And maybe then together we could start a rest revolution!
Rest For Life Story
The Journey Here
​It started with a seed of an idea. Well I suppose that’s not strictly true. It really began with my own struggle to find rest, probably going back 25 years to the birth of my first son. This was when I first became aware of a deep need for rest and also began to discover just how difficult it could be to find. This led to a long journey of seeking and eventually discovering rest.
Anyway, back to the seed of an idea. Having found rest for myself, I wanted to provide a place of rest for others who were weary or exhausted. I could see them everywhere and I recognised the signs. Although that was not difficult as it had become the standard answer to the question ‘how are you?’. Almost all answers were variations on a theme; ‘I’m crazy busy’, ‘exhausted’, ‘there’s just not enough hours in the day’, ‘I’m so weary’, ‘can’t wait for my holiday’. So many people on their knees, running on empty.
I knew I didn’t have all the answers but I also knew that I wanted to help, so in 2015 I started exploring the idea of offering a place of rest for the weary. Somewhere away from the everyday responsibilities of work and home but somewhere you could feel at home, somewhere you could be refilled, refreshed and renewed. I had searched for such a place on my own journey but nothing I discovered quite fitted the bill.