Rest…in it’s entirety.

Rest is important. Anyone that knows me knows I struggle with this myself. But taking myself out of the conversation, we need our rest to function on a daily basis. Rest comes in various forms, whether it be physical rest or mental rest. Lack of adequate rest could lead to detrimental effects, specifically burnout.

Let’s talk about burnout. Burnout is described as a state of emotional, physical and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress (as per the Help Guide). As a person that has experienced burnout in previous places of employment, one of the biggest contributors to the stress was my lack of mental rest. I was so preoccupied with all the work I needed to do for my employment as well as in my personal life that I didn’t take time to calm down. Eventually, like I stated in an earlier post, I ended up in the hospital. From that experience I realized that I need to take time to look out for myself and know the signs when I’m overworking myself. We need time to take a step back and appreciate what we’ve done so far and allow ourselves to mentally reset.

Meditation has been a great help in this regard when it comes to mental rest. I’ll be honest, I don’t do it as often as I should, but when I do I feel completely ready to attack the task at hand. I make sure to turn off all distractions, set my timer for the amount of time that I would like to meditate, close my eyes and focus on my breathing. For example, if I plan to meditate for 10 mins I put all my focus on breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth for the next 10 mins while my eyes are closed. You don’t have to do this, however this has helped me so far.

Now physical rest is exactly what it sounds like, actually sleeping. I sleep roughly 4-5 hours on a good night and that isn’t due to insomnia or anything else. As much as I enjoy sleep, I enjoy being awake. However, if you don’t get a good night’s regularly, your body will gladly do it for you. I remember getting ready to go out one night and I decided to lay down and rest my eyes for a bit. I woke up 5 hours later, fully dressed for whatever event I was going to get into but the time has passed. I had multiple calls from my friends looking for me and I just informed them I knocked out.

As I stated in the beginning, rest is important. We need it to function and a lack of it will be a hinderance to our wellbeing. A lot of us are home for extended periods of time so I’m assuming that you’re sleeping a good amount but don’t forget to take care of your mental wellness as well. Your brain needs a rest too, especially with everything that we are dealing with today.