To Feel Energized Again, Figure Out What Kind of Rest You Need
Despite taking two weeks to do nothing over the holidays, I still felt exhausted. Serendipitously, a book called Sacred Rest by Saundra Dalton-Smith, M.D. bounced its way into my news feed. In it, Dr. Dalton-Smith delves into the root causes of why we feel depleted and how to address the real cause of our exhaustion. Rest, she explains, is not just a matter of finding the time to sleep in on weekends — although physical rest is one of the seven types of rest she addresses in the book. In fact, rest encompasses a wide range of ways in which we might feel depleted. In addition to physical fatigue, we might feel spiritually weary, creatively destitute, emotionally drained, socially overstretched, sensorially overloaded or creatively blocked. Each of these components demands a different remedy in order to feel fully rested and restored.
Physical rest: Granted, you might simply need sleep or a nap. However, if committing to a regular bedtime and a regimen of eight hours doesn’t do the trick, consider that you might need something more restorative to improve your circulation, activate your lymphatic drainage system or destress your muscles. In that case, a quiet activity such as yoga, tai chi, massage, stretching or a solitary walk might be what you need.
Mental rest: If sleep seems elusive and you have trouble shutting off your brain at night, try journaling. A nightly gratitude journal and daily morning pages (a practice championed by Julia Cameron of The Artist’s Way) are two paths that will help you “brain dump” your way to a calm and decluttered mind.
Spiritual rest: Finding a way to connect to the larger world and forces outside of yourself offers spiritual rest. For some that may mean a regular visit to a place of worship or a support group, for others it might be solitary meditation and prayer or a quiet walk in the woods or along the seashore.
Emotional rest: This type of exhaustion is addressed when we are able to shake off the many masks we wear as we weave through the world and feel the freedom of wallowing in our authentic selves. This is when we turn to that one person with whom we can be our true selves and share the challenges of our lives. It might be a therapist, our spouse or a good friend.
Social rest: Hand in hand with emotional rest is social rest. We need to balance out our interactions with the people who exhaust us with those who energize us or who can offer us an alternative perspective on the issues that we might be facing.
Sensory rest: Sometimes we need to step away from the Zoom calls and emails, the binge watching and the chatter to find a space of peace and calm. That might mean a bath, with soft music, low lights and scented candles. It might be assuaged by a walk in the woods. It might be shutting the door and closing your eyes for a few minutes between appointments or the zen quiet of a long early morning car ride along a deserted stretch of coastline, classical music on the car radio.
Creative rest: This kind of rest is addressed by an active appointment with beauty. In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron suggests a weekly hour long solo date with yourself that acts to fill the creative well. That might be time at the beach or a long hike, catching an exhibit at the museum or spending time in a new neighborhood, wandering around experiencing its sights and sounds.
What kind of rest do you need? Take Dalton-Smith’s Rest Quiz to discover where your rest deficit lies.