7 types of rest you need to fully recuperate

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

No, this is not just a dream.

Rest is usually associated with a passive pastime. It seems that he looks exactly like this: take a nap, lie on the couch in front of the TV, "hang" on the phone, lie under the sun on the beach.

But the human personality is too complex, and “just sleeping” is often not enough to restore all resources. Perhaps you yourself have noticed that when you are very exhausted, emotionally burned out and generally feel bad morally, sleep does not really help you to recover.

Physician, author of books and TEDx speaker Sandra Dalton-Smith explains this by the fact that a person needs seven types of rest for a comfortable existence. And we, unfortunately, ignore most of them.

What are the types of rest

Sandra Dalton-Smith identifies these categories.

1. Physical

It covers everything that helps the body to recover and bounce back. This is not only a dream, nap or an opportunity to lie down, but also, for example, massages, spa treatments, warm baths, relaxing yoga or stretching classes and other body-pleasing practices.

2. Mental

This type of rest affects mental processes and is needed when a person is overwhelmed with thoughts or he is engaged in a lot of intellectual activity. Mental rest can include walking or relaxing in the middle of a busy day, journaling, and other ways to unload your head.

3. Emotional

It is needed in order to calm down a storm of feelings and experiences, to remain sincere with yourself and others. This kind of rest is required for everyone, but especially for those who are constantly under stress, forced to please other people and hide their real emotions.

As an emotional relaxation, a sincere conversation with a loved one or a psychologist can work. You should also try writing practices that give you the opportunity to express your emotions, or find any other activities that bring joy and peace.

4. Social

This is a break from communication, especially from tense and unpleasant, provoking stress. The format of such a holiday implies the opportunity to spend time pleasantly alone with oneself or to be among people who are calm and comfortable next to them.

5. Touch

It is especially needed when we overload our senses with sensory stimuli: we spend too much time at the computer, constantly listening and watching something. A sensory rest can be a walk in the park, a day away from screens and gadgets, a nap in silence and darkness.

6. Creative

This kind of rest is required for those who feel stuck, burned out, experiencing a creative block and cannot find inspiration or a good idea. Any creative activities that a person includes in his life for pleasure, and not for the sake of a result or earnings will help to overcome all this: going to a master class or to a museum, meditative activities like needlework or coloring pages, even just buying goods for creativity.

7. Spiritual

It doesn't matter whether a person believes in God or not, in any case, from time to time, he needs to communicate with himself and with the world around him. Spiritual rest, according to Sandra Dalton-Smith, can be prayer, meditation, yoga, going out into nature.

How to know what kind of rest you need

Unfortunately, there is no magic device that will scan a person and give a diagnosis with recommendations: you have a lack of emotional and mental rest, start walking, keeping a diary and meditate.

If a person feels that he is exhausted, but traditional physical rest does not help him, he will have to analyze what he has been doing recently, in which areas of his life he has overworked, what exactly is he tired of and what he lacks.

For example, if someone at work communicated a lot with difficult clients, was forced to constantly keep face and conduct difficult negotiations, perhaps he needs emotional and social rest. And someone else, who worked on a complex creative project, fizzled out and lost inspiration, needs mental and creative rest.

Sandra Dalton-Smith developed the Rest Quiz Test, which helps to understand what kind of rest a person needs first of all (to pass the test, you will need basic knowledge of the English language).

How to relax properly

To truly recuperate, feel good, be productive, and avoid burnout, you need to find a balance between different types of relaxation. These are the principles Sandra Dalton-Smith advises to follow.

Figure out where to start

More often than not, life subsides in several areas at once, so it is important to determine where there is a more critical deficit. For example, a person is exhausted from a stressful job and realizes that he needs physical and emotional rest.

The first impulse, of course, will be to take a couple of weekends to sleep well and lie under the covers. But if at the same time emotional overload does not allow one to relax, if a person cannot fall asleep due to anxiety, resentment and other unpleasant feelings, such “weekend” will exhaust him even more.

Therefore, it is logical to first put in order the emotional sphere in a comfortable way: talk with a loved one, go to a pleasant and interesting event, cuddle a cat, hug a child. After that, it will be easier to rest physically.

In general, different types of rest work according to the domino principle: you should start with the one that is required the most, and the rest will follow.

Plan your vacation

We tend to shelve self-care, hobbies, personal projects, and anything else we don't get paid for. Including rest. We tell ourselves that we need to keep a diary, walk more, arrange an evening without a phone - but in the end, all this remains just a plan.

Therefore, rest should be recorded in a diary and taken seriously, like a trip to a doctor or a work meeting.

Build different activities into your schedule

Resting is important not only on weekends. It will be great to make a list of short restorative practices that help you stay in shape, and find a place for them on weekdays.

You don't have to go to an art gallery to get inspiration - you can buy beautiful postcards and use them to decorate your workplace. You don't have to look for half an hour to meditate - you can close your eyes for a couple of minutes, concentrate on your breathing and get distracted from the outside world. By the way, this practice is called micromeditation Mindfulness for People Who Are Too Busy to Meditate / Harvard Business Review and helps people to be more attentive, calm and mindful.