This Labor Day, break out from your burnout and rejuvenate yourself through these different types of rest!
Emerging into adulthood is a beautiful journey- full of independence, exploration and… fatigue? That’s right, it’s the seemingly never-ending companion of growing up.
Are we supposed to feel this exhausted all the time? Have you ever pulled so many strings to give yourself a full week of rest, only for nothing to change? Sleeping doesn’t work. Seeing your friends drains you even further. And the moment you sit by yourself, and promise yourself the space to do nothing but relax, you’re sucked into an overwhelming abyss of anxiety and restlessness.
Dear readers, this blog may be exactly what you need, for this is where you will be introduced to the ailing vices of burnout, exploring the different types of rest you need to feel more refreshed than ever before.
Caution: This Reader Is On Fire
Burnout– the word we begrudgingly accept as an inevitable ramification for chasing our passions and carrying our responsibilities with pride and vigor. It is the physical and mental fatigue, silent yet unyieldingly demanding. With burnout, you find yourself drained, lethargic and irritable. Some begin to find simple tasks to be burdensome. Others might start feeling empty, unfocused and distressed. And, unfortunately, no number of hours slept are likely to restore this lost energy.
Where’s The Fire Extinguisher?
Fear not, however, because this is not where our story ends! A happy ending is looming in the distance, only requiring simple deliberate effort and perseverance.
Have you ever told someone how tired you are, only for them to reply with, “Just get some rest”? Easier said than done. Thing is, we are often misguided in our approach towards resting, using it as an opportunity to shut-down or dissociate from the stress that is surrounding us. We might suddenly feel stuck or empty, confused as to where to start and how to proceed.
The author of Sacred Rest, physician-research Saundra Dalton-Smith provides us with a simple formula, catogrizing our needed rest into 7 key types:
- Physical Rest
As you’re reading this, here’s a small reminder: unclench your jaw and lower your shoulders.
Whether your responsibilities are physically demanding or not, one thing about stress is that it builds up the tension in our muscles. In fact, stress causes a great deal of damage to the body, causing aches, soreness and pain.
Physical rest involves remedying this mind-body dynamic and positively affecting this feedback loop. Not limited to laying down, physical rest can also include muscle relaxation techniques, massages, yoga or simply stretching. Working on easing the tension in your body also helps in lowering levels of anxiety and promotes overall well-being.
- Mental Rest
Picture this: You finally set the scene for you to relax. Your legs are raised and stretched on the couch, and your head is peacefully resting on the pillow. There’s just this one thing holding you back: your mind simply won’t shut off.
As we constantly engage with situations that require our critical thinking, evaluation and problem-solving skills, we might find it difficult to break these racing thoughts and pressures. Eventually, this could create a mental fog, where we would struggle with our ability to focus or regulate.
That is why mental rest is crucial to improve concentration and reduce anxiety. It involves quieting the brain through deliberate actions or techniques, such as engaging in a soothing and distracting activity or practicing mindfulness.
- Creative Rest
Have you ever opened a social media platform, whether it was Instagram, Tiktok or Facebook, and passively scrolled through the never-ending stream of posts? Your mind’s certainly shut off, and your body is definitely relaxing. But as you watch one post after the next, hours pass by and you still feel drained and uninspired.
Creative rest refers to partaking in more than just passive activities to pass time. It involves activities that encourage imagination and foster creativity and playfulness. It’s when you sit in nature and feel inspired by the beauty of the world, or tap into your feelings and artistry through appreciation of music and literature.
Creative rest not only promotes inspiration and creativity, but it also enhances productivity and focus. It elevates the mood and reduces tension through providing space for expressiveness and exploration.
- Social Rest
When it comes to social rest, there’s no one-size-fits-all. Some people have socially demanding jobs that constantly drain their energy, others thrive in social environments and feel rejuvenated when surrounded by others. Your social rest would all depend on whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, the nature of your responsibilities and who you are surrounded with on a daily basis.
However, at the core of it, social rest is crafting the social environment that best provides you with the space to feel energized and relaxed. It could either mean distancing yourself from social interactions, or surrounding yourself with a supportive network that promotes lightheartedness and encouragement. Resting yourself socially is the perfect opportunity to nurture introspection and self-reflection in a recharging environment.
- Emotional Rest
One thing we know about emotions is that we often struggle to control them. So, how can we achieve this “emotional rest”?
Dr. Smith highlights the possibility and necessity of this type of rest. It involves being mindful of our emotional states, and curating a suitable space for healthy acknowledgment and expression. Whether it’s through journaling or seeking support, emotional rest is being genuine about how we feel to avoid the tension of emotional suppression. It could also involve setting boundaries and distancing ourselves from emotionally draining situations. Consequently, emotional rest is important to promote emotional resilience and inner peace.
- Sensory Rest
Do you ever feel like the world is just… too much? A gentle touch becomes too heavy to bear, whispered chatter makes you want to cover your ears, and the refreshing rays of sunlight become blinding and painful.
This is what we call: sensory overload. Sensory stimulation is usually healthy and necessary for us. Yet, too much of it sends our brains into an overdrive as it tries to regulate and make sense of the many inputs it’s receiving.
Sensory rest is when we give our brains this well-needed rest. It involves deliberately reducing our exposure to sensory stimulation, such as removing ourselves from screens, relaxing in a quiet environment, or using grounding techniques by focusing on one sense at a time.
- Spiritual Rest
Feeling overwhelmed and pressured by the daily stressors of life may bring up questions about the meaning of it all. It could spur up questions such as, “What’s our purpose?” These weighted questions are not afterthoughts. They tap into grander things: the purpose of our lives and how we can find our connection in it.
Spiritual rest addresses this part of our psychological well-being. A subjective and personal journey, it involves actively acknowledging these concerns through activities such as meditation or spending time in nature. To foster hope, resilience and fulfillment, spiritual rest allows us to transcend beyond the materialistic world to focus on our belongingness and value.
Be Intentional
With all your weapons ready to conquer fatigue and exhaustion, this is where I leave you with an important tip: Rest is not a reward. Many of us might feel obliged or pressured to cultivate our restful habits during the weekends, a reward for all the work we have done during the other days. However, the same way we eat and drink on a daily, and even hourly, basis, rest is just as significant as those needs.
Instead of treating burn-out, one should incorporate small habits of rest on a continuous preventative basis.