How To Rest Effectively: 7 Practical Tips

Do we all concur that happiness and health go hand in hand? We probably do. Resting is crucial for keeping your body healthy. According to popular notions, rest and sleep are two distinct parts of human life. How to rest effectively then? We frequently make the mistake of thinking that because we have slept for a specific amount of time, we have rested, but the truth may surprise you.

In the present era, when we are expected to perform and achieve at a high level, there are various forms of rest that we frequently overlook for our bodies. We have evolved into a group of people who are always exhausted and who appear to have forgotten the value of taking time to rest.

Recovery through sleep is not going to happen if the majority of the components of your being aren’t getting enough stimulation or resistance to work against. Your brain may be tired after work, but if your body and emotions haven’t been challenged through the day, they’re going to keep irritating you even if you’re asleep. They don’t need rest; they need work for real recovery to take place.

― Darrell Calkins

How do I rest effectively? What should be our pattern of rest? By the time we have finished taking a break in the hours we allot ourselves, we should be able to experience restoration in the seven key areas of our lives. What are the seven most important domains? Let’s just look at it.

Physical Rest

Physical wellbeing necessitates listening to what you already know, and then taking it seriously enough to act accordingly. When you wake up and feel the impulse to arch your back, stretch and exhale with a loud sigh, for God’s sake, do it.

― Darrell Calkins

By the end of the day, there are two ways you can replenish your energy. There is an active manner that leads to certain physical exercises, such as working out, participating in yoga, or even playing a sport, that help increase the natural flexibility of your body along with improving blood circulation. This technique relieves the tension in your muscles and tendons after the necessary exertion that your body needs. Taking a nap or sleeping for a specific number of hours at night is a passive way to recover your energy after finishing your activities for the day.

Mental Rest

You may have coworkers who have a habit of brewing a cup of coffee to start the day because they find it difficult to function without it. They frequently lacked focus while working and were irritable and forgetful. That being the case, why is that?

Such a person has trouble turning his brain off when he goes down on the bed at night and concentrating to give his mind a break from the seemingly endless thoughts. He eventually falls asleep, only to wake up the next morning feeling even more exhausted from the lack of sleep.

How can we fix this? The good news is that handling this is not at all challenging. Simply taking brief breaks every two hours while working throughout the workday would suffice. How do I rest effectively? You can slow down and reduce your brain activity during these periods.

You can simply write the thoughts down on a notepad when they appear in your head at night and activate your brain. You can relieve some of the strain on your brain and get a good night of sleep by doing this.

So, as physical health and mental health are intertwined, could not the same be said about the modern world? Could not aspects of how we live in the modern world be responsible for how we feel in the modern world?”

― Matt Haig

Sensory Rest

Do you realize that the majority of the day is spent keeping your senses active? We do experience sensory overload as a result of bright lighting, computer screens, background noise, numerous discussions, and excessive listening.

You can manage to put your senses to rest by closing your eyes for a short period of time in the middle of the day and by purposefully unplugging from technology by the end of the day. You can start to repair the harm that constant stimulation has done to your senses by allowing yourself these little periods of sensory deprivation.

Creative Rest

This kind of rest is necessary for those who will be doing problem solving or those who are continuously trying to come up with fresh ideas. Each of us experiences a sense of awe and wonder when we give our creative selves a break. Putting your thoughts to rest by taking in the beauty of the outdoors, whether it is your garden or a local park, will allow you to rekindle your creative abilities.

Allow me to add that you also need to cherish art—art that speaks to you—by making your workstation a space that inspires you. This is because in order to experience creative rest, you need to appreciate both nature and art. You could generate creative thoughts largely owing to this.

Emotional Rest

There are people all around us who feel underappreciated and as though others are taking advantage of them. We all need to carve out time and space for ourselves so that we can express our feelings genuinely and reduce our desire to please other people.

Besides, we have a responsibility to provide emotional rest to the people in our close surroundings who rely on us in some ways for emotional support.

How do I rest effectively? We ought to provide a safe emotional environment for them so that they can express themselves truthfully. When emotionally rested, a person is able to honestly answer the question about how he is doing, and even his personal challenges in life are open for discussion.

The transitory and random quality of emotions is deeply connected to, and largely the cause of, random engagement of one’s values and priorities. This very randomness and inconsistency is actually the cause of deeper suffering, primarily through the accumulation of addictions and the indulgence in reactions that are disproportionately small in comparison to what is really being sacrificed for them. Curiously—and a major theme in my own work over decades—the casual association of emotions to love is part of the insanity in all this.

― Darrell Calkins

Social Rest

This happens when you do not allow yourself sufficient time to disconnect from people who do not contribute to your welfare. Do you see yourself surrounded by the same group of people at all times? We may enjoy having plenty of friends, but if we cannot tell which friendships in our lives restore us from which ones drain us, we would not be as happy.

You may spend your entire life trying to figure out which people you belong to, which ones you do not, and which ones genuinely want you. When you surround yourself with positive and encouraging people, your social relationships will improve. These folks would not drain you socially any longer, and you can practically count on them to give you the social rest you need in life.

Spiritual Rest

We do possess the potential to connect beyond mental and physical boundaries in order to experience a profound sense of purpose, love, and acceptance. We yearn for blissful rest that fills us up to the core. Our damaged, exhausted, hopelessly distracted souls need more than just physical, mental, and emotional healing; they need absolute, constant rest.

You can make prayer, meditation, or community service a part of your regular activities and involve yourself in something greater than yourself.

If you are ignoring a high percentage of the elements of your entire being, and the range of qualities they can naturally engage, there will be no real recovery or progress until you do. The typical relentless worker is just as lazy as the typical indulgent idler, they are both just going through the habitual motions. To break the repetitive pattern, and discover more energy and effectiveness, one simply must stretch out in all directions, rotating focus and application of the qualities that make up one’s natural versatility.

― Darrell Calkins