5 Activities That Will Refresh Your Soul

Finding activities to refresh your soul has become an essential task in modern-day life. Most of us would agree that life is often really exhausting. How many times do you start conversations with your friends with ‘I’m a bit tired’ or ‘there’s a lot on at the moment’?

Our lives can, very quickly, become overwhelming. Whether we’re knee-deep in family life, dedicating every waking hour to our careers, or even if we’ve pulled back from work and retired, we can still end up feeling drained and depleted.

Thankfully, there are a range of activities you can easily build into your daily rhythms that will refresh your soul, and today, we’ll share five of them.

But, first, it’s good to understand why one activity might drain you and why another might refresh you. For that, we’ve got to pop back to the garden, back to Eden, and look at our original design.

How You Were Designed To Live

Read through the beginning of Genesis again, and you’ll get an inspiring reminder that we were designed to live with God in joyful, creative co-habitation. It’s in our nature, wired deeply into our being, to spend our days living with God in a garden.

We have come quite a way from that, haven’t we?

Now, we can’t all quit everything, overhaul our lives and head out to set up a camp in a forest. Thankfully, the rest of the books in the Bible demonstrate just how far God will go to come and meet us where we’re at. The key is to remember that we were designed to do daily life with Him and that the further we go from that original design, the more exhausted we are and the more lost we feel. Finding our way back to the garden in modern-day life looks like inviting God into every moment of every day.

Will This Activity Refresh My Soul?

When you’re searching for different activities and hobbies to refresh your soul, keep Genesis in mind. Does this activity connect me to God? And does it connect me to nature? If the answer to both is yes, then you know you’re leaning into your original design and on the right route to feeling refreshed and restored.

5 Activities To Refresh Your Soul: First Up, Time To Get Outside

This won’t be the first time you’ve been encouraged to head outside to find refreshment. The vast benefits to your mental and physical health have been studied and proven time and time again. But what the studies don’t do is connect the dots between time out in creation and connecting to the creator.

God’s fingerprint is on every tree trunk, carved into every mountaintop, and printed beneath every lake. Nature is beautiful because God made it so; it was no accident. God rejoiced in His creation and when we do too, it connects us to Him and restores our soul.

The more time we can spend in nature, the better. If you’re able to include regular hikes in your week and spend weekends out in the mountains, then make the most of it. Book hikes and trips into your diary so they don’t keep getting put off.

If you live in the city, then search out other ways to connect with nature. There might be a brilliant park you can take your lunch break in for example. Even tiny doses of nature can have a big impact, though. Filling your home with plants and fresh flowers can have a noticeable impact on how you feel. There are growing amounts of studies that show just looking at a natural view, even inside, can have a positive impact. So, hanging some natural art and indulging in some indoor plants is much more than just interior design; it’s an investment in your wellbeing.

Explore Creativity

When considering creativity as a means to refreshing your soul, it’s good to separate the process from the product. It’s so much easier to enjoy creating something, whether a drawing or floral arrangement, when you don’t focus on the product. AKA, don’t stress about making something good; just enjoy the making.

The act of making, creating and doing something with our hands is deeply nourishing. It helps you to relax and ground yourself in the moment and it connects you to your creator, God.

Why not see if there’s a creative course you can start? Ceramics, painting, knitting or whatever else sparks interest for you.

You could also pick up an adult colouring book or go green-fingered and start gardening.

What or how you create doesn’t really matter, only that you make the time to give it a go.

Mediate On His Word

Connecting with Jesus is like a dose of instant refreshment for our souls.

Matthew 11 includes one of the best-known passages of scripture:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Here Jesus lays out His invitation to rest and refresh our souls. Time with Him, he spells out, is good for you.

Meditating on scripture is a simple, but really effective, way to connect with Jesus. Try listening to the Bible as you walk or tuning into a daily devotional.

Get Involved

Sometimes the best thing to do to refresh your soul is to get your head out of your day-to-day and into someone else’s. Serving your community in some way not only helps widen our perspective, it also tunes into our calling to serve and love others.

Connect With Community

When you’re feeling drained and exhausted, it’s tempting to pull back from our friends and community. The feeling of overwhelm can get so big and all-consuming that simple things like messaging a friend or going to a church gathering can suddenly feel too much.

Even during times of burnout, though, it’s worth trying to prioritise times of connection with our community. This can be in a small way, just some simple messages catching up with a friend, or perhaps a hike with just one of your best friends?

Proverbs 16:24 says: “Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”

It takes real bravery to open up to a friend when you’re having a hard time, but in being vulnerable, you make way for healing words to be spoken.