What Rest are You Lacking?

If you feel fatigued and tired all the time, you need to evaluate the kind of fatigue you are experiencing and the appropriate rest you require.

After learning about burnout and how it affects you, you need to know some different types of rest. Perhaps you have been told that rest is only about getting some sleep and feeling better. In fact, rest is more than that, it touches every aspect of your life. Here are 7 types of rest that you actually need.

1. Physical Rest
This rest is both active and passive. When you have been working you physically get tired, feel muscle strain and your body is exhausted. In order to recover, you need to sleep so that your body can refresh. This is passive rest. However, sometimes you feel lazy, slow and fatigued, i.e. sluggish. In such times, you need something like exercise,yoga, walk, etc., to refresh your body. This is active rest.

2. Mental Rest
Sometimes you may find yourself unable to quiet your mind. You may fail in concentration, or find that you forget easily. For example, colleagues keep telling you, “Where is your mind so and so, come back?” In other times you begin something and forget where you were, or you rise from your desk to pick a pen on the next desk in office but forget midway. To rest your mind you need to need to take time to meditate and relax so that you can focus.

3. Emotional Rest
This rest can be achieved by genuinely sharing your emotions. If you carry loads of emotion you get overwhelmed. Sharing helps you to release these emotions and to heal so that you don’t have to struggle with emotions when talking with colleagues.

4. Spiritual Rest
This rest is linked to your belief system. A person who has a purpose feels that they contribute to the welfare of humanity. If you lose meaning you will find it hard to find a reason to carry out your duties. You may also begin your day well but before the day ends you feel off. It’s good to find a way in which you contribute to the society and connect with yourself. Different faithfuls may find it refreshing attending a retreat to get in touch with themselves spiritually.

5. Sensory Rest
This is one of the most ignored types of rest. The sensory stimulus around you can affect you e.g. the TV, passing vehicles, phone rings, computers, children’s noise, etc., and can cause you sensory overload. They cause you to become enraged, agitated, angry, unsettled, and so on. You therefore need some time to switch off from such sensory inputs and to relieve your senses. Once in a while you can visit a quiet place with minimal sensory stimulation so as to recover. You also need to switch of phones, laptops, TVs, radio, and anything that engages your senses so that you can calm them.

6. Social Rest
You get this rest from people around you. But if they drain away your energy, you need to move away. Think of those moments when you spend time with people you don’t need anything from. For instance, you have that person who criticizes you or that other person who keeps annoying you. In such cases, you need to withdraw. Of course, you cannot withdraw from your family and you need to look for other ways to resolve conflicts so you can get energy from your own family members. But if you need to move out of toxic family relationships, you need to do the necessary with the help of professionals.

7. Creative Rest
This is the last form of rest. You experience this rest when you express or appreciate beauty of any form such as nature, art, music, dance, ocean, mountains, etc. Lack of creative rest, takes away your creative and innovative power. You feel unable to develop ideas, participate in discussions, and come up with constructive, attractive and appealing decisions, ideas, projects, and so on. So, get out of that house, go in a park and rest, watch birds, look at the water waves in the ocean and behold the beauty of nature. This will go a long way in keeping you focused and innovative.

You have read and understood that rest cuts across physical, social, emotional and psychological dimensions. It is therefore holistic. You need to calm yourself in all ways in order to maintain a balanced life