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The Need to Rest
ערבית עברית
Living fast-paced and demanding lives and being surrounded constantly by technology and smartphones, making us accessible to people and information 24/7, are some of the reasons many of us feel overwhelmed, tired, stressed, and burned out. Understanding the value of resting and how we can rest is more necessary nowadays than ever.
Over the years, there has been a lot of research showing how vital resting is for us. Incorporating moments of rest in our daily schedules have been linked to reducing stress, improving productivity, boosting creativity, improving immunity, and overall physical and mental health.
This post invites you to take a few minutes and check in with yourself to consider how much resting plays a role in your life.
The 7 Types of Rest
We tend to assume that the answer to fatigue is always the need for more sleep, yet that is not always true. Recognizing the source of our exhaustion and what kind of rest we need is necessary to recover. As I looked more into this subject, I came across the work of Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith. She is a physician and a researcher whose own personal experience with severe burnout led to a long journey of studying fatigue and rest. Through the years, she developed a theory that there are seven main types of rest that we all need to feel fully alive and ourselves. Let's take a closer look at these seven types of rest.
Physical Rest
Physical rest is the most familiar type of rest on this list. It can be passive such as taking a nap and creating better sleeping habits. It could also be active such as mild exercise, stretching, yoga, walking, or any other activity that improves our physical well-being. We usually can tell when we need physical rest by feeling a lack of sleep and some pains and aches in our bodies.
Mental Rest
Getting easily distracted, feeling overwhelmed, taking longer to complete tasks, or having difficulty quieting our minds at night before getting to sleep are signs that we might need mental rest. Working on computers for long hours can also lead to mental fatigue. One way to help us rest mentally is to include breaks in our daily schedules. Break up our tasks and allow short breaks in between where we step away for a few minutes from the task at hand. In doing this, we improve our focus and become more productive. Another way to get mental rest is by developing a habit of writing down our thoughts on paper, which helps us clear our thoughts and quiet our busy minds, especially before sleeping.
Social Rest
Feeling overwhelmed from interacting with others or thinking, "I need some time for myself?" indicates that you need some social resting time. We tend to pour our energy into our different relationships, some of which take more from our energy than we get back; this is when we feel socially drained and exhausted. Evaluate your relationships and notice how much energy different relationships take from you. Notice which relationships or interactions you can sit in and enjoy yourself, relationships in which they don't need anything from you, just your company. It is usually in these relationships that you get to experience social rest. Knowing this can help you decide how best to spend your time and with whom.
Spiritual Rest
Spiritual rest is about feeling that we belong to something bigger than ourselves. We need spiritual rest when we feel a lack of belonging and purpose. We can rest spiritually by finding meaning in what we do, exploring our beliefs, and connecting with others to support a mission bigger than ourselves.
Emotional Rest
A need for emotional rest happens when we often feel like we can't be truthful or authentic with our feelings or express them freely. We end up feeling exhausted, stressed, and irritable because we are unable to share how we truly feel with others, such as saying yes to things when we don't want to. Some ways to help get emotional rest are to get comfortable experiencing difficult emotions, practice expressing our feelings truthfully, journaling and writing about them, or share them with a trusted friend.
Sensory Rest
Sensory overload is a real struggle for many of us nowadays. We live in a time when we constantly receive sensory input, whether we're aware of it or not. We are regularly exposed to loud noises, bright screens, and constant notifications on our devices, not to mention the busy cities we live in. All of these make us feel overstimulated and easily irritable, angry, agitated, and aggressive. Some ways to get sensory rest are to take breaks from technology often, turn off notifications on your devices, go on quiet walks out in nature, and practice meditation.
Creative Rest
We need creative rest when we notice that we are stuck, unable to be innovative, come up with ideas, or solve problems. Some ways we can get some creative rest and get unstuck is to take a break and try something else for a change, do a fun activity that we enjoy, or spend some time out in nature. This way, we can reduce our stress, gain more clarity, a new perspective, and some inspiration.
In conclusion
It falls on us to check in with ourselves and notice where our fatigue is coming from to better choose the type of rest we need. In doing this, we'll feel more recharged and refreshed. Prioritizing rest and creating opportunities to put in more resting activities in our daily schedules will improve the quality of our lives. As you're about to step back into your busy life, I encourage you to consider how much you have been able to prioritize rest in your life. Notice what type of rest you need and what small steps you can take today to help you recharge and rest.
Sincerely,
Rasha Afifi-Talleh
Executive Coach
CPCC, ACC, ORSC
