Rest is any active or passive behavior that helps increase our physical and mental well-being.
#1: Physical Rest
Physical rest is the most common type of rest, and includes sleeping, napping, getting a massage, doing stretching or yoga.
Signs that you need physical rest:
Body Aches/Body Pain
Fatigue
#2: Mental Rest
Mental rest is when we put our mind to rest. It’s a way we force-stop our brains to work hard. We can start/end our day with meditation, or by staying away from electronic devices an hour or 2 before our bedtime to give our minds a break.
Signs that you need mental rest:
When you’re in bed but can’t find yourself falling asleep
When you constantly find yourself struggling to concentrate/recall information
#3: Social Rest
Social rest is the rest we experience when we are around people who can re-energise us (as opposed to the group of people who drain us of our energy). Either of these 2 groups of people could be our spouse, our kids, our co-workers or friends.
Signs that you need social rest:
You find yourself constantly giving to people
You find yourself gathering with people that takes energy off you
#4: Spiritual Rest
Spiritual rest is to feel a sense of belonging and alignment with our own beliefs. It is a different process for each person, but with the same intention of finding a purpose in life. We can go for short trips, do charity work or pick up hobbies.
Signs that you need spiritual rest:
You don’t feel that there’s a purpose in the things you do
You don’t feel that you belong somewhere/your contributions are not recognised
#5: Sensory Rest
Sensory rest is to take a break away from/reduce exposure to everything we can feel, touch, hear and see. Sensory inputs comprise of phone ringing, bright lights, endless notifications
ringing on your phone, countless emails coming in and many more. A little of these noises will not affect anything but an overload will result in irritation, anger or agitation.
Signs that you need sensory rest:
You constantly find yourself easily agitated/irritated
Your mood changes for the worse as the day goes by
#6: Emotional Rest
Emotional rest is when we can be real and authentic to our feelings and how we share them. For e.g. laughing at a joke simply because it’s funny and not because everyone else is laughing and if we don’t, we won’t fit in. Emotional rest requires us to acknowledge our emotions. It can be as simple as doing things we like, crying, or seeking professional help if it gets too overwhelming.
Signs that you need emotional rest:
You don’t show your feelings because you want to let others feel that everything is fine
You share false emotions with others (e.g. saying you’re fine when you’re not)
#7: Creative Rest
Creative rest is the rest we experience when we allow ourselves to appreciate beauty. Meditation, sleeping, and taking on side projects are ways that we can get creative rest.
Signs that you need creative rest:
You have a hard time being innovative/solving problems
You find yourself procrastinating to start on creative work/leaving it to the very last minute to do
We now know what are the 7 types of rest ^1 that are essential in our pursuit of a happy life. Take the rest quiz (https://www.restquiz.com/quiz/rest-quiz-test/) ^2 to find out which are the ones that we can give more attention to. Prevention is better than cure, and small positive changes in our daily habits will go a long way.
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