We all know that getting enough sleep is an important part of preventing burnout and protecting our health, but have you ever considered that there are different types of rest which are also an important factor?

We often think of rest in terms of physical activity, as in sitting or lying down rather than being active on our feet, but if our mind is going through our to-do list or we are scrolling on Instagram whilst we are sitting on the sofa watching TV, how much rest are we actually getting?

One of the main reasons people do not get enough rest is that our society does not generally reward it and often people will talk proudly about how busy they are and how much they have fitted into their week. As a result, we often feel others will judge us as lazy if we admit to doing nothing for periods during our day. However, we are human beings, not human “doings” and sometimes just being is the best thing we can do for ourselves.

Before experiencing burnout and Chronic Fatigue, I would never allow myself to rest during the day for no reason. I would only do so if I was ill. I prioritised getting things done, lightening my load, being as efficient as possible and achieving as much as possible. I had very high standards around this and this internal pressure led me to exhaust myself on a regular basis. It was only when I started to have real problems with my energy levels, which forced me to rest because I quite simply could not carry on, that I truly began to realise the importance of resting and take it seriously. I finally felt justified in my resting because I had a label of ill health. I would have a rest time after lunch each day, but often my mind would be racing with frustrated thoughts about all the things I wanted to get on with. It was only when I gave myself permission to just be, and not achieve anything for the duration of that rest time, that it became truly beneficial and restorative.

Sometimes people will stay stuck in chronic exhaustive conditions for many years as they only feel they are allowed to rest or say no to things when they have challenging symptoms as a good reason to do so. This is known in psychology as Secondary Gain and this usually plays out subconsciously. We might not be aware that we are fearful of getting well (which seems ridiculous because it's the thing we really want), because we will then have the challenge of giving ourselves permission to be unproductive to prioritise our needs, and this can feel less acceptable to explain to others.

Ideally we want to move towards society encouraging rest before we start to get exhausted, to be preventative about burnout. In some workplaces, rest such as mindfulness is encouraged during the working day as a means of becoming more focussed and productive overall, but we also need to prioritise our health and wellbeing above our productivity. Learning to listen in to ourselves and take note of how we feel mentally, physically and emotionally, and how we are using our energy, can be a good first step. Let’s take a look at the different kinds of rest that we need to stay in balance:

Mental rest

Deeply restorative rest requires peace and quiet in the mind so using tools such a breathwork, yoga, meditation or mindfulness is recommended to reach this state. Coming in to the body and focussing there, even just for a few minutes, allows us to come out of our many thoughts. Calming the body sends messages through the vagus nerve to calm the brain also. Multi-tasking such as being on our phones whilst simultaneously watching Netflix is more draining than we realise, as our brains have to work very hard to process everything coming in and cope with the stimulation. Even conducting conversations with others is energy going out, as we process what others are saying through listening and come up with a response. It was only when I no longer had the energy to have long conversations that I realised how much we can sometimes use up in being sociable. Solitude during the day can be really useful to calm the mind and help us to check in with ourselves.

Emotional rest

We all know how it feels to feel tired emotionally. Often this comes from dealing with difficult relational issues and situations where we might feel angry, sad or anxious. If we have been triggered into feeling emotionally reactive, this can use up a lot of energy and we might need to remove ourselves from certain people or places to restore our emotional energy banks. It’s a good idea to use self-care tools to help calm the nervous system in this situation. We can also do activities that bring us joy or be around people we feel calm and safe with to change our state.

If we are feeling worried and anxious, we can use mindfulness to bring us into the present moment and out of future-focussed imaginary thoughts, to get a break from them.

Maybe we have recently experienced a trauma or bereavement and need emotional space to process it.

Particularly for introverts and Highly Sensitive People, being around others at work or socially can be draining emotionally as we often pick up other people’s emotions and can feel them as our own, so boundaries are really important to protect us from this: perhaps we need to take our lunch break on our own to recharge and for our colleagues to understand why this is important for us and that we are not being anti-social.

Physical rest

Exercising is hugely important, but if we over-do it when we actually need physical rest, it can be very detrimental. For example, perhaps we can’t quite get over a virus such as Covid and feel after a month we should be “healthier” and our response to this is to go to the gym and push ourselves hard to get fitter. This is often the last thing our body needs as the energy going out from physical exertion is much needed in our bodily systems to heal and repair. Another example is if we really push ourselves in exercise to deal with executive stress but in fact a slow amble in nature, a session of hatha yoga or some coaching to look at ways to deal with the stress better, would be more appropriate to regulate our nervous systems and to allow us the physical rest we need to reboot our physical energy levels and health.

Conclusion

Giving ourselves permission to rest when we need to, and being less concerned with comparing with others and what they might think, are essential aspects of maintaining our wellbeing. Recognising the different types of rest that we need and understanding how to ensure we are getting quality rest will benefit us immeasurably. It might only need to be 5 minutes here and there. How might you plan quality rest into your week?