Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Thoughts that Bind. Today, we’re talking about rest. Why we need it, and where to get it. So, let’s jump right in.
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’re likely the kind of person who strives for continual improvement and results. You want to be the best you can, and give something to this world. And I commend you for that. It really encourages me how many people I’ve gotten in touch with who feel the same way, and devote their lives to doing so. I feel both encouraged and honored to be sharing a world with you all.
That being said, all of this productivity and high functioning can get to the point of a complex. We just talked last week about wasting time, and I mentioned how I don’t think that resting is wasting time, even if we define wasting time as anything that doesn’t further your goals. (If you want to read more about how to not waste your time, click here for that piece.) But I didn’t really go into it much then, and for good reason. This topic is so important, I feel it deserves its own dedicated discussion to give it proper space.
Without rest, you burn out
So, here’s something you probably already know. If you continually push off rest, then you’ll burn out. You will be basically shut down and unable to perform at some point. But what you may not know is how this plays out.
Burning out can be physical, mental, and emotional, and is often some combination thereof. It can result in fainting or insomnia or injury on the more physical side. But there are also emotional ramifications, like you might suddenly be very irritable or you might find yourself crying frequently. You might even have panic attacks from thinking about a certain situation. If you’re having any of these symptoms or an unexplained loss of productivity, it’s time to take a step back and assess.
Rest renews you
Believe it or not, rest actually makes you more productive. It renews you, bringing both your body and mind back to their original state, making you able to start again with your original intensity, but added experience. It’s life’s reset button! In fact, after a good rest, you’ll be able to both do more and understand your situation better. That’s going to make you more productive in both the immediate and long term future. Think about the alternative–your productivity and mental health slowly declining until you run yourself into the ground, unable to work–and remember that taking a rest is responsible, not selfish.
Different kinds
So there are different kinds of rest, for different kinds of fatigue. This is something that we don’t often think about. But just as there are different ways to be burnt out, there are different ways to address it, based on the kind of issue you’re having. For the sake of simplicity, I’ve sorted them into 4 different groups, but remember that the form they take will vary from person to person, as well as in each situation.
Physical rest
I thought I’d start with what is perhaps the most obvious–physical rest. Now, physical rest entails the lack of physical exertion, or getting some sleep, as the case may be. You can think of an athlete who has one scheduled rest day a week where they don’t train their body. Or how after a long day of excitement and activity, you need a good night’s sleep.
During rest, the body is able to repair itself, like healing from an injury or building up the microtears in muscles to make you stronger after a workout. This is a fascinating process to be sure, and also, a necessary one. Without rest, your body can’t heal and reset, which means that without giving yourself some time to sit down and recover, you won’t be able to get physically stronger.
And then there’s sleep, which also repairs the body, not to mention the mind. While you sleep, your mind is physically restored, but it’s also hard at work, recontextualizing your daily life experiences. So as you sleep, your brain is processing what you’ve lived, and working hard to give you new ideas and solutions. That’s a win-win, if you ask me.
Mental Rest
But physical rest isn’t the only kind of rest, even though it’s what we tend to think of first. Another important way of resting is what I’ll call mental rest, and it’s often described as “taking a break”. When your brain is hard at work on something, particularly something important, it can be a bit overwhelming all at once. And due to this, it’s important to take a break every so often.
What you want to do is pull yourself back to some sort of mental equilibrium, so to speak, and refocus your thoughts. Some people like to work on a different problem, sit down and meditate, or even get away from the immediate work area, to reset their brain to their more baseline, relaxed state.
What we find is that when we intentionally disengage periodically during projects, we are able to be more productive, because we are only giving our brains as much information as they can properly process, then giving them time to do so, and then returning to the task. This is especially important with big projects that are highly conceptual or have a lot of moving pieces of information. Taking a step back will help you see the big picture, as well as the little details, and it will help you have a better idea of what to do with all of these snipits of information that you have to work with.
Emotional Rest
Then we come to emotional rest, which I will specify as recreation. To recharge emotionally, it’s important to take a step back from what you were doing and let yourself redirect to something that brings you joy.
This is where hobbies come in, like sports or art or creating. Also, consumption sometimes falls into the category of recreation too, like watching a movie, going out on the town, or trying a new beauty product. The point is, you want to not just unplug from whatever it is you were doing, but also plug into something that makes you, you.
These are different things for everyone, but the goal here is personal enjoyment and feeling seen. Do something, go somewhere with people you like and trust, and put effort and engagement into the parts of your life that make you feel like a whole human being instead of simply “productive” and “responsible”. That is what we call emotional rest.
Spiritual rest
Now there’s a slightly more obscure form of rest that I consider to be just as important, and I’ll call it spiritual rest. This is partially for spiritual and religious people, but not entirely. For those who have a religious background or spiritual practice, participating in activities that affirm their beliefs is very important to mental health and personal recovery. This includes activities like praying, going to church, performing a ritual, or meditating in some cases. But these aren’t the only way of spiritually recharging.
You see, whether or not you believe you have a spirit, as a human, you likely have a sense of yearning to be part of something bigger than yourself. That’s what spiritual rejuvenation is all about. And like I said, it needn’t be religious or “spiritual” in the way that people often think of the word. No, instead, what you’re looking for is to get connected with something, something bigger than yourself that is meaningful.
For you, that may be a religious activity, but it could just as easily take the form of volunteer work or putting together an event or fundraiser, or getting out there in your community and lending a helping hand to one of your peers. Whatever it looks like to you is valid. Just remember that being part of something bigger is an important part of feeling fulfilled, rested, and on your game as a whole.
It’s a balance
So, it’s clear you need rest, and now we know how to get it, which is great. But a lot of these things may seem too simple, or mundane, or like wastes of time (particularly if you’re not used to doing them regularly. And I want to validate that for you, because I hear you. And yes, it can happen. You can rest too much.
When you prioritize resting over all else, you become ineffectual as well. If you don’t continually push your limits, your skills will start to atrophy over time, and that’s not something you want either. For this reason, it’s important that you start to develop a sort of barometer of where you’re at in conjunction to needing rest. This takes honing your personal awareness, but it is doable.
Start to push your limits a little, just to where it’s uncomfortable. And then pull back. Do it more often, in different areas, and you’ll start to get more acquainted with your productivity threshold as well as the signs you start to exhibit when you need to take a break and refuel. Remember, you’re not a robot. You need to renew yourself sometimes. There’s no shame in that. In fact, there’s actually strength in it. To be able to master yourself in such a way is wisdom, and power. There’s no need to be ashamed of it. You’re exhibiting a skill.
I hope that I was able to persuade you to take a rest here and there, as needed. And as always, thanks for reading! If you liked what you read, consider subscribing to our mailing list for updates on new content over here. And let us know with a comment: what is your favorite way of getting some rest?
