Are You Well-Rested?

Those of us who are self-quarantining may find that the pace of life has slowed down. Or maybe the demands of working remotely have actually created more work and hassle.

Maybe you are enjoying more time with family and extra time to pursue projects and hobbies. Maybe life is crazier and more stressful than ever before.

Whatever your situation, I think the book Sacred Rest by Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith has advice to help you through this troubled time.

I read a lot of books. Some entertain. Some explain. And some, like this one, resonate with my soul. The full title is: Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity.

Does that sound like something you could use right now? That’s why I’m excited to share a few concepts from the book with you.

I have written about our need to seek rest and fill our tanks before. This book helps me understand how to do it more effectively.

Here are five insights I gained from the book Sacred Rest.

1. We all have excuses.

Most of us have been taught a variety of unhelpful beliefs about rest. We do not take the time to rest because we think it’s:

• Unproductive
• Lazy
• Selfish
• Optional
• Worthless
• A sign of weakness
• Etc.

What are your excuses? How do they hinder you from taking good care of the only resource you have to give the world—your body-mind-soul-spirit?

2. There are different kinds of rest.  

There are seven different areas of our body/soul/spirit that need rest. Here is a brief description of each:

• Physical Starting with the most obvious, our bodies need rest in order to function properly. Lack of rest may cause symptoms like exhaustion, pain, or poor health.
• Mental Our brains experience a constant deluge of information. We can exhaust ourselves with unhelpful mental habits such as dwelling on negative thoughts, reliving the past, or worrying about future what-ifs. Lack of mental rest can result in decision fatigue, mental fog and feeling overwhelmed.   
• Emotional Whenever we deal with other humans, we expend emotional energy—whether we are interacting face-to-face or by watching the evening news. The emotions that surround us—whether from real or virtual people—affect our emotional health. If we do not monitor the emotions we allow to fill our minds, or process our emotions in a healthy way, we end up with emotional fatigue, which may lead to anxiety, irritability, anger, or depression.
• Spiritual Our faith and relationship with God affect our ability to feel rested in the other areas of life. When you feel distant from God, or feel hopeless and defeated by life, those are signs that you need to renew and restore your spirit.
• Social We humans were created to be social creatures. Even introverts like me need healthy social interaction. While periods of solitude are restorative, too much time alone can lead to loneliness, a tendency to avoid people, and depression. Solitude may seem like a reasonable mechanism to avoid the drain of difficult relationships, but in fact our soul needs positive relationships to be restored.
• Sensory Our modern world is filled with noise, music, blinking lights, flashing images, enhanced flavors, perfumed cleaning products, and a million other things that stimulate our senses. It becomes harder and harder to find a respite from the deluge. Our modern habit of constant screen time is like living on a diet of junk food. The constant bombardment on our senses can lead to becoming either overstimulated or desensitized to the world around us.
• Creative We are so busy juggling career and family responsibilities that we forget to be mindful of the world we pass thru on the way to checking off our next to-do item. When we neglect time for the creative part of our soul and keep our thoughts focused on the next action item, we lack joy, wonder, and satisfaction in life.  

3. All rest is not created equal.

Our emotional or spiritual rest deficit cannot be made up by sleeping longer at night. A vacation can deplete us just as much as normal life if it is not filling the right needs. When we identify the areas where we most need rest, we can often find simple ways to begin restoring ourselves without full-day spa sessions or week-long vacations to tropical isles. It’s all about knowing where we are being drained and seeking ways to build ourselves up in those areas.

4. Rest is often active rather than passive.

Rest—in the sense of restore—is not a void. It is an active replenishing of what has been depleted. Physical rest is more than just sleeping. It involves active movements that keep our bodies limber—such as stretching or gentle exercise. In the same way, rest in the other areas is not a passive lack of activity but rather an intentional focus on the activities or thoughts that will build up and restore.

A few examples: Social rest is found by actively spending time with the people we love most—strengthening the relationships that build us up and encourage us. Creative rest involves engaging in activities that fill our wonder/joy/creativity tank.

5. Nobody else can do it.

We are all responsible for taking care of ourselves. Just as no one else can sleep for us, so no one else can provide the rest our whole being needs in any other area. We need to give ourselves permission to pursue proper rest. We need to create healthy boundaries to keep from depleting our energy. We need to understand which areas of our lives are being drained and how to replenish those areas.

For more information on the seven types of rest and which ones you are most in need of restoring, try Dr. Dalton-Smith’s Rest Quiz.

I hope I have encouraged you to seek the rest you need to be the best version of yourself.

Happy resting!