7 ways to recharge your mind, body, and soul
How to rest your body and soul? Why just a good night’s sleep can’t help us to feel rested and energized? What is rest and how to accomplish it?
These are the topics that we will discuss in this article.
When we think of rest, we think of sleeping or lying down on a couch and watching a good movie or our favorite show. Resting is not just stoping all activities, lying down on the bed, and relaxing.
Maybe you’ve noticed that after a good sleep you wake up and feeling exhausted and with no energy. Why is this happening?
People say I am tired, exhausted. And they can’t bring their energy back by sleeping. The reason for this is a rest deficit.
What Is Rest And Why It Is So Important?
Rest is the period in which one replenishes one’s energy resources, both mentally and physically, to prepare one’s body to perform the next set of activities with the desired fervor.
We drain physically and mentally after long hours of work and it is important to restore that lost energy. Rest is not just to restore lost energy but to be able to work again with the same intensity.
According to physician Saundra Dalton-Smith, M.D., author of Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Renew Your Sanity, humans need are physical, emotional, mental, sensory, social, creative, and spiritual.
7 Types Of Rest To Restore Your Body and Soul
Physical Rest
We all know when we are physically exhausted. We can’t keep our eyes open, we need sleep. These are the first signs of physical exhaustion.
Physical rest is typically meant for releasing tension and soothing your body which helps to restore essential energy required for physical activities that we have to expend energy on.
Read More: Why Am I So Exhausted All The Time?
It doesn’t matter whether you are sitting on a desk, working out, driving, your body needs physical rest in the form of deep breathing, power naps, and stretching.
Good night’s sleep is very important. Go to bed earlier. Turn off your phone and other electronic devices, read a chapter of a book before going to bed.
After a good night’s sleep, you will feel more energized the other day and be able to finish all your daily tasks more efficiently.
Mental Rest
Are you overthinking, you think of the things in the past that you can’t change and you are not able to live in the moment?
If you are not rested mentally you will stagnate in your life. The first signs that you need a mental rest are indecisiveness, restlessness, lack of attentiveness, an increased number of errors in work.
The best way for mental rest is to include meditation in your daily life. Long walks in nature and turning off social media for some period of the day.
Emotional Rest
Emotional rest is very important for your mental health, happiness, holiness, and contentment. We are used to suppressing our emotions and keep them inside of us for a long time.
The best advice is to turn off your defense mode and express your emotions. You can do that by telling all that bothers you to a friend or the best way is to express yourself in a journal.
Also, emotional rest is when you stay away from people who are negative and provoke your anger, shame, guilt, and frustration.
Social Rest
Socializing after a hard day can be counter-productive and can drain our energy more.
Dalton-Smith says “My biggest deficit is social rest,” “I’m an overachiever, I’m competitive, and I like to be moving toward goals—it becomes easy to be this solo warrior. So for me, (social rest) means finding people who are in my tribe—women I don’t have to compete with.”
Social rest can be achieved when you meet with someone who knows to listen. Someone that you can talk with about your day and express how you feel.
Another way to rest socially is by incorporating solitude in your day when you can reconnect with yourself.
Sensory Rest
Sensory exhaustion is so common today. Spending too much time in front of your laptop or smartphone is draining your energy. On our breaks, we stare at our smartphones or texting someone and we call it a break from work or relaxing.
Give your sensory system some time to restore itself by unplugging all electronic devices like cell phones, televisions, mixer grinders, loud chimneys, toasters, etc.
Turn off or put away your phone at least 30 min. a day. Lie down with your eyes closed in a room with fewer electronics and have a little rest. You will have more energy after that and a clear mind too.
Spiritual Rest
If you feel empty, purposeless, with no desire to live you need spiritual rest. If you are a religious person practice your religious rituals. You can also start writing a gratitude journal.
Every day write the things that you are grateful for and keep this paper in a visible place where you can see them and read them through the day.
Creative Rest
When was the last time you flexed your creative side? Think about the time you brainstormed ideas at work or planned a surprise party for your bestie?
You use your creative flair more often than you think you do. So it’s not unusual to run out of creative ideas. To keep getting more innovative at the ideas you implement in work, you should take small ‘creative breaks’.
Go for a walk (without any electrical gadgets), take inspiration from nature, read an engrossing yet simple book, listen to soothing music. This will help you revive the much-needed lost creative resources.
Final thoughts for how to recharge your body, mind, and soul
We have busy lives. We don’t have time to rest our bodies and souls. But if we want to get all the things done we must have energy.
We can’t accumulate energy just by sleeping or eating healthy food or working out. Sometimes or body and soul need more from this. It is good to implement these habits into your daily life so you will feel rested and energized.
It is important to find yourself the peace, your body and mind need that.
After reading this you know how to accomplish that peace.