TYPES OF REST
We are done with almost half of the month of July! Finally! And we need to rest a little bit once in a while. When you think of the word rest, you often think about sleeping or doing nothing. Although physical rest is very important, there are seven types of rest you need to heal yourself completely, recharge yourself, and feel fresh.
So, the types of rest you need are
- Physical
- Mental
- Spiritual
- Emotional
- Social
- Sensory
- Creative
Let us dive into the detail of each
PHYSICAL REST
Physical rest includes two subtypes. It has an active type and a passive type. Passive involves things like sleeping and taking a nap. Although you need sound sleep, physical rest also includes a few active things like yoga, stretching, acupuncture, getting a massage, and also making sure that the ergonomics of your workstation are not too harmful to your body.
Signs that you need active physical rest could be body aches and pains. There could be swelling in your legs and feet after sitting at your desk for a longer time duration or it could be spasms in your back.
MENTAL REST
When someone has a mental rest deficit, they may find themselves lying down to go to sleep at night but their mind is racing. And they will not be able to calm down and fall asleep. Another example is the person who walks into a room for doing some work and is trying to remember what they went in there for, and they cannot seem to recall the information.
They are struggling with focus and recall, and they are not old aged, so they are not someone who we are thinking has dementia. We are seeing people in their twenties or thirties who cannot remember two or three items for longer than a few minutes because of their overthinking brains. They are not able to hold on to information for a longer time.
SPIRITUAL REST
Spiritual rest needs may differ based on someone’s belief system. A person who might be suffering from a spiritual rest deficit is someone who goes to work for a paycheck, but they are like, “The job I do does not really matter or benefit anyone! Whatever I do is not going to make a difference at all.”
When you do not feel like the work you do has meaning, you will surely experience burnout. We all have that need to feel like we do belong and that we all are contributing. Spiritual rest may include reading your holy book with meaning, meditation, and volunteer work.
EMOTIONAL REST
Emotional rest may specifically refer to the rest we experience when we feel like we can be authentic in how we share our emotions. Many of us carry a bit of emotional baggage privately, in that we do not share with people what we are feeling.
There are a lot of times we do carry emotional baggage and we hide our feelings without expressing them and healing ourselves. The symptoms of an emotional rest deficit are you always have the urge to keep your emotions in check and that you never have the liberty to be truly authentic about how you are feeling.
Emotional rest involves opening up, processing your thoughts and emotions, and venting out. If you do not feel like sharing your thoughts and emotions with a person, you may try journaling.
SOCIAL REST
Most of us spend the majority of our time with people who keep pulling from our social energy. Not that they are negative people, but they may negatively pull from our energy. You may feel like “Can I just get a moment for myself?” You feel like everybody is draining your energy, and you never feel like anybody is ever pouring into you or contributing back into your life.
Social rest may involve spending time alone and also spending time with people who encourage and uplift you.
SENSORY REST
Even if you are not consciously aware of the sensory input around you, your body and your subconscious self are going to respond. That sensory input can be the sound of phones ringing in the background, the bright lights of your laptop or phone, the kids playing while you are at your home office, your notifications going off on your phone or your email, or even the visual backgrounds of everyone on a Video call.
All of these sensory inputs over a period of time can cause you to develop sensory overload syndrome. The number one way most of us respond to this sensory overload is irritation, agitation, rage, or anger. And so, people with a sensory rest deficit may find that they are good at the beginning of the day, but you cannot understand why at the end of the day you become so agitated or irritable. Temporarily disconnect from social media and technology, close your eyes, and take a walk in nature.
CREATIVE REST
Creative rest is the rest we are able to appreciate the beauty in any form. Whether that is natural beauty, like the oceans and the mountains and the trees, or created beauty, like dance, music, and art.
The way you can tell when you have a deficit in this specific area is when you have a hard time being creative. Do something purely for fun and enjoyment. Going out in nature, reading a book, painting, art and craft, and playing games.
