Though you may equate rest with sleep, they are different ways of helping the body recoup. Rest basically involves a short span of time for taking a break without moving for helping the body and mind enter a soothing state to energize. To be your best self, it is important to distinguish between these different types of rest and how turning to rest for specific areas of your life can make all the difference.
Our lives can be stressful and challenging even for the best of us. Therefore, mental rest is essential for clearing the mind and promoting clarity from problems and stresses that are weighing it down. Meditation and something as simple as repeating one word can do wonders to calm an anxious brain down while it also lowers blood pressure.
Writers and artists know that creativity doesn’t always flow as swiftly as you hope, but creative rest can unlock the dam blocking it. Stretching out for about 10 or 15 minutes with eyes closed and replacing all other thoughts with a relaxing scene or happy memory to play in your head does help the pressure to get those thoughts flowing again.
Something else to spark creativity could be as simple as temporarily leaving your environment to stare outdoors or walk in the park to take in the sights. You also could try reading or listening to music that soothes your soul can be enough to energize creative thoughts.
This may sound strange, but laying in bed at night is always the time that the best sparks of creativity seem to occur for me. What I like to do is keep a notebook and pen on my night stand so that I can jot them down and not forget. Otherwise, I tend to forget those thoughts before I wake.
Physical rest is a sign that shouldn’t be ignored since it is your body’s way from those muscle aches and stresses of the day to signal that it had enough. However, gentle stretching or other low-impact movements can help you sleep better and benefit most from physical rest. The reason is how those particular types of movements can reduce a lactic buildup in the muscles and get those toxins moving as it improves blood flow through circulation for rest.
Humans needs other people in our lives or we are miserable. Nonetheless, our interactions can exhaust us at times. When you feel the world closing in, you need a short mental escape with some quiet time to recoup. Turning off your phone, walking away from your computer and into another room to just chill out for a few minutes can help steady your heart rate and pressure.
When circumstances seem to place us in situations out of power to handle such as deaths of loved ones, serious diseases to losing someone you love through divorce, etc. can be devastating to our well-being. Channeling that feeling of helplessness to a higher power such as turning to religion and spirituality is another of these types of rest that can take the pressure to replace it with comfort or hope.
Figuring out the types of rest that will benefit you most at the time you need it can help you live a happier and healthier life.
