REST
If you want to perform under stress you need to understand how important it is to rest.
There’s an equation that is central to all the work I do (and how I live my life) - stress plus rest, divided by awareness, equals energy.
Stress is an unavoidable part of life that we need to thrive. However, we don’t have unlimited capacity for stress and if you’re not getting enough rest then you might find that your tolerance for challenging situations can go down. Unfortunately humans aren’t always very good at resting. Every day we’re bombarded with messages (outside noise) that tell us rest is for wimps, so we’re not always tuned into what our bodies and minds might needs, or if we are we might choose not to listen to those messages.
“Stress is a call to action that demands a physical or mental response. To allow adaptations to happen we need to REST to allow recovery and growth.”
Whether you’re training for a marathon or working on a big project at work or school, you’re putting yourself under stressed and you become tired both physically and mentally. When you are tired the risk of injury and psychological breakdown increases so you need to rest to allow recovery and growth. When we’re rested we get more done, we’re more creative and we are happier. If you don’t rest you can compound the negative effects of stress and it becomes even more stressful as you feel like you ‘can’t’ do something because you’re burnt out. It can become a vicious cycle. So hear me clearly when I say REST IS NOT A LUXURY, it’s a necessary part of the human experience.
Rest doesn’t have to mean sleep (although that’s my favourite sort of rest), it’s simply time where you unwind from the demands of life. Claudia Hammond, author of The Art of Rest, describes rest as something temporary, restful and restorative and might include going for a gentle stroll between work commitments, meditating, reading a book or moving in a way that feels good. Even making a cup of tea could help improve our mental performance and cognitive function.
I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead
Unfortunately we seem to be at a point where culturally stress is valued more than rest. Think about all the phrases that get thrown around in relation to work and play - ‘go hard or go home’, ‘work hard, play hard’ and ‘sleep when you’re dead’. Then there’s the cult of hustle or the idea that we need to do more, turn our hobbies into our jobs, work from anywhere, have a side gig etc that’s omni present on social media (and as a multi-hyphen professional nerd I am as guilty of perpetuating these messages as anyone). In short we are in a time where busy is good and resting is lazy. It’s not a surprise when we get to the end of the week and find that we’re exhausted, lack creativity and can’t show up for our loved ones, doing more and more with less and less rest is a recipe for burn out.
How Do You Know When You Need To Rest?
Outside noise can be loud and it’s not always easy to know when you need to rest, after all you can sleep when you’re dead! However, if you want to break the cycle and take advantage of how FRICKING AMAZING rest is try asking yourself a few questions…
How are you?
I will bet good money that you said something like ‘oh I’m fine, just super busy’. It’s fine to be super busy from time to time, that’s when exciting stuff comes together, but if you chronically feel like you’re busy and you’re not taking time to rest then you need to reevaluate some things because you will burn out.
Do you need a holiday?
Sounds like an odd question, but this is my tried and true test of whether someone is getting enough rest. If you’re tired to the point you want a solid block of time off (that you probably feel like you can’t take) then you’re not likely to be resting enough.
Is ‘it’ll be fine once this passes’ something you say a lot?
There’ve been so many times when I’ve been busy to the point of exhaustion but have convinced myself to push through because once whatever project I was working on had passed things would improve. Spoiler, it never did.
Do you find yourself thinking you don’t have time to rest?
Saying you don’t have time to rest is THE BIGGEST RED FLAG THAT YOU NEED TO REST. It sounds counter-intuitive, but when you’re under the most pressure you need to rest the most if you want to show up and give your best to whatever you’re doing.
How to Get More Rest
The only way to get more rest when you need it the most is to make it a priority. Be intentional, schedule your rest and make it a non-negotiable, trust me that 10 minute walk between meetings or the time you spend watching the world go by from a bench will make all the difference to how you handle the stress life throws at you.
