We have always been told to work hard. But like many other things, they have not said anything about the importance of a useful rest!
The secret of success is not in working hard all the time! It’s about working smart. And Living…
Not so many people know the art of living life beyond existing…
A smart person works to create a good balance between life, rest and work.
Just as it is important to focus on the outside world, and know how to work smart, ‘relaxation’ and ‘useful rest’ are necessary for our success and wellbeing.
“Sometimes the best solution is to rest, relax and recharge. It’s hard to be your best on empty.” -Sam Glenn.
It is important to know how to take care of our wellbeing and relax our mind.
Also, many of the successful people of the world, know how to ‘allow’ their mind to recover by having meaningful rest and relaxation periods for their body and mind.
Before I tell you how to relax yourself, you should know what it’s effects are.
And when you understand how much resting-well, affects your progress, you will be eager to plan for it!
What Are The Effects Of A Good Rest?
Adequate rest is necessary for the body. But resting is not just limited to sleeping.
In this article, you will see that even doing an activity is a form of relaxation!
First, Let’s See The Effects Of Sleep And Rest On The Body:
Rest And Relax To Overcome Diseases!
Several experiments have been conducted to investigate the effect of rest and sleep on the immune system. The results show that the amount of sleep you get has a direct relationship with your immune system. But it is not true to say that the more you sleep, the stronger your immune system will be. Everything must be in balance. Adequate and appropriate sleep is usually 8 hours a day for adults. So having enough sleep strengthens the immune system.
Why does rest and sleep affect the immune system?
This is because when we sleep, our body secretes hormones and substances that it does not do at other times. Usually, these substances are made to fight against diseases, which ultimately strengthens the body’s immune system.
Sleep Well To Remember Things Better
It may have happened to you that you were studying until morning on the night of the exam. You must have thought that you could remember all the material at the meeting. But this is wrong!
Many studies have shown that sleep is not only useful for reducing stress before the meeting, but also makes you categorize the material in your brain. Classification of information before the meeting is extremely necessary. That’s why you don’t remember many of the things you’re sure you’ve read on the exam.
Apart from the exam, you need enough sleep and rest to strengthen your memory in any field. A mind that does not rest cannot remember information well.
If you build a strong memory, your life and work will be easier in many cases.
During sleep, the brain reviews the experiences of the day and strengthens the nerves related to learning and memory. This process consolidates new information and makes it more accessible in the future. So enough sleep is very important for the formation and strengthening of memory.
With Enough Rest And Relaxation, You Won’t Need A Doctor As Much…
Have you noticed that when your sleep becomes irregular for a while, your skin gets pimples and acne? This is precisely because of the effect of sleep on the health of the skin and other body parts. Even the regular functioning of the heart depends on your relaxation. Many digestive and nervous diseases can be significantly improved by having enough sleep, a good rest and a relaxed mind and body.
At the same time that you fall asleep, other parts of your body also rest and can prepare for activity again. So, it is necessary to give enough rest to the body parts for their health.
Good Sleep Is Directly Related To Learning
Sleeping strengthens the nerves, improves memory and creates new neural pathways. This issue is important for adapting to different experiences and acquiring new skills. While sleeping, the brain is still active. But our sleep makes our brain prepare to receive new information and learn.
It is good to learn ways to improve learning by studying the techniques of rapid learning. Better learning, faster progress!
I recently read about an interesting research about the relationship between sleep and alertness. During this research, the level of alertness of different people with different amount of sleep was measured. Finally, the studies showed that the personal vigilance with less than 5 hours of night sleep is equal to the vigilance of a person who has consumed alcohol.
Now that I mentioned the effects of sleep and rest on the body, I want to talk about its effects on the mind.
Why Is It Necessary To Rest For The Mind And Soul?
The mind’s need for sleep is even more than our body’s need for it. If the mind does not rest and is always under pressure, nothing but negative results will follow. Now let’s examine the effect of adequate rest on mental health.
Before that, I want to mention a type of procrastination that is caused by lack of sleep. For example, has it happened to you that after a busy day, you still do not sleep and are busy with work?
If yes, you are neglecting a good relaxation, sleep and rest!
Now Let’s Go To The Effects Of Enough Rest:
Having Better Mental Health
Lack of rest or sleep is observed in many diseases related to mental health. If all people knew the importance of rest and gave themselves enough rest, the level of mental health of society would probably increase greatly. Lack of sleep causes mood swings, increased excitability and experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Two cases of the effects of mental rest on mental health:
Mood Improvement
When you mentally relax, you strengthen the neural processes of the brain. The human mind, like the body, needs deep rest and relaxation (beside sleep). When your mind is sufficiently relaxed, it is pleasant to communicate with others. That’s why you will be well behaved unconsciously. This good manners is also effective in strengthening your social relationships.
Reducing The Symptoms Of Stress, Anxiety And Depression
If you have noticed, yoga and meditation instructors are often calmer and healthier people. These people continuously strengthen their psyche through their jobs. When you rest your mind, your body’s hormones are also balanced. How?
Our body contributes to hormonal balance by eliminating stress hormones such as cortisol and increasing beneficial hormones such as serotonin.
The requirement for all these events is to keep the mind calm by using relaxation techniques that I have discussed in this article.
More Creative Thoughts With Rest
During periods of rest, the brain engages in “off-task” thoughts; A place that connects seemingly unrelated information and creates creative thoughts. This is why ideas often seem to appear “out of nowhere”. Allowing enough time to rest will generate creative ideas. Many successful people in the world do creative thinking in their spare time.
If you would like to have a more creative mind and learn more about the world of creativity, I suggest you refer to this article.
How To Rest And Relax Usefully?
As I mentioned before, resting and relaxing is more beneficial than sleeping.
This issue requires proper work effort and having enough fun.
Here I suggest you several techniques to have a useful rest.
Your sleep is more obligatory than a night snack!
From the beginning of the article until here, I mentioned about the benefits of rest and sleep. These reasons are enough to pay attention to your sleep.
In the following, I have several suggestions to improve the quality of your sleep:
-Have a consistent sleep schedule by going to bed and waking up at specific times every day, even on weekends. This also regulates your body clock for night rest.
-Create a comfortable sleeping environment. Make sure your mattress and pillows are comfortable and your room is dark, quiet and at the right temperature.
-Limit the time you use your cell phone before going to bed, because the blue light emitted by the devices can interfere with the production of your sleep hormone (such as melatonin).
-Create a bedtime routine that includes relaxing activities. such as reading a book, taking a warm bath or doing relaxing techniques such as meditation.
Also, starting your day mindfully is one of the most important factors affecting mood and progress. If you can start your morning a little earlier, and learn to be more cheerful from dawn, you will see it’s wonderful effects in your life.
Your Mind Should Rest More Than Your Body!
Resting the body is necessary but not sufficient. As our mind does not relax just by sleeping. And unlike our body, the mind needs a series of useful breaks to recover itself.
If our mind is tired all the time, there will be no progress in life. So take this seriously. And learn to relax your mind…
Let’s Introduce You To Some Useful Relaxing Techniques:
- Practice deep and slow breathing to experience more relaxation and reduce stress. This technique is useful in stressful situations.
- Regular meditation sessions can calm your mind, reduce anxiety and improve your brain function.
- In stressful situations, try to take time to relax your body muscles. Doing this technique is suitable for preventing severe muscle cramps.
- Be in the present moment and observe your thoughts and feelings without judgment.
- Sometimes the best rest is living in the present. Set aside time in the day for mindfulness and freedom from the past and future.
- To experience a basic mindfulness methods. I suggest you refer to this article. By reading the article about mindfulness, you can learn to calm your mind effectively.
- Go for a walk and pay attention to your breathing, the feeling of your feet hitting the ground and the environment around you. This work is called ‘conscious walking’, which is considered as one of the most fundamental methods of mindfulness.
Being Active Is Also A Kind Of Rest!
Resting does not always mean sitting still in a corner and scrolling your hand-phone! You can relax your mind by doing interesting activities.
The feeling of peace that you get after being active that you get by doing some things out of your comfort-zone and doing some activities, is a kind of rest too! These kind of activities sometimes boost your energy and give your mind a very peaceful and relaxed vibe.
Here Are Some Examples To Do Useful Things:
-Try activities such as drawing, painting, knitting, or playing a musical instrument. These can engage your mind and create peace at the same time. It also strengthens your creativity.
-Choose a book that you are interested in and spend time in its world. It doesn’t matter what book you read; Read a book you are interested in. Daily reading will help you progress in your personal and professional life in a surprising way.
-Do your favorite things. Do activities that make you happy and are considered a good rest to your mind in real life. This can be listening to music or teaching others and even taking a solo walk after a busy schedule…
Goodbye Virtual World. Hello Real World!
Perhaps one of the most suitable types of rest is to stay away from cyberspace and try to communicate or be present in the real world!
Now, don’t get me wrong! I’m not against using the technology at all!
But, sometimes you just need to stay away from the blue screen and digital devices for a while to be able to relax you mind and thoughts!
Engaging in technology-free activities can help to calm your mind (if you find it difficult to get detached from your phone and being online all the time, make sure that you are not actually addicted to your phone and being online all the time.)
This rest model is essential for anyone who is connected with technology and uses the social media for connecting with the outside world most of their free time. Because the cause of many of our mental fatigue is excessive use of the cyber space, which seems to be relaxing, but in reality it is not beneficial for our wellbeing.
Remember that maintaining social connections means real connections. No only virtual!
Also, have useful conversations or joint activities with friends and family or join groups and gatherings near your community. You can go on outings with the other people and gain new experiences in life.
One of the reason’s that the social media takes away your energy is it’s ability to create a one sided view to the world and the subjects, and in most cases our mind can realize this at the background, even if we choose to ignore the facts! Most of the things you see in the social media is very fabricated, even the short notes and the advises that you read are based on the ideas of the person who shares them online! The whole reality is not easily found in the social media and that’s the reason it is not satisfying to be online all the time after a while… Because you always see a limited version of the reality and many of the times you come to see something exactly opposite of what you saw in another social channel, and while many of us came to this conclusion, we still use it out of being alone or bored… While in the outside world, where you see and choose to understand the things based on your own definitions. The outside world gives you the chance to be able to see the whole picture of the reality and not just a piece of it!
It is understandable if you find yourself coming up with excuses, we always find it difficult to accept change, try to expand your relationships in the real world as much as possible.
The social media and blue screens have dominated much of our free time. But as much as their benefits are present in our lives, we must take control, because they do have good and bad side just like many other things do as well.
But being present at the reality always creates more opportunities even in your personal life.
Get Out Of The House!
Sometimes, in addition to resting indoors, communicate and be present in the outside world. Try to stay away from the crowded city, to experience new things in the nature. Staying at home and resting is not always a good idea.
Even if you are having a difficult time in your life… Do not close the doors to yourself. Do not isolate yourself. Do not stop living. It is not healthy! (I have been there too, and I know that it is very difficult to even stand up from where you have fallen sometimes! But you need to get out of this stage of your life. If you need help ask for help, get the support that you need, and get as much positive energy you can. You can always start moving forward in life, no matter where you stand in life, live life! All you need is believing in yourself, and taking one step at the time to move forward!)
Sometimes putting yourself in different situations creates a sense of vitality and freshness and gives you the feeling of livelihood and helps you to relax your mind and soul.
Grounding and meditation are really helpful when it comes to relaxation too. Meditation in nature is one of the types of mental relaxation that is very effective. For this purpose, find a quiet spot in nature, sit down and focus on the sounds, smells and feelings around you. Communication with nature in your own language,
Ways To Have A Better Working Day
Working people have tried different ways to focus in order to make the most of their time. Here, I will introduce you to two of the most used ones:
Taking Mindful Breaks Technique
This technique involves working for a period of time that you know is efficient and effective for you, and then taking a short breaks once you feel it is over.
90 Minute Cycles
Some research shows that the efficiency of the mind is very high in 90-minute cycles. Therefore, focusing on work for 90 minutes and resting for 15 to 20 minutes after each cycle can help maintain the efficiency of the mind.
Also, for complex tasks that require deep concentration, you may want to have different cycles (eg 50-60 minutes) and longer breaks (eg 10-15 minutes). You can adjust the time intervals according to your work or education.
Employee Rest
If you are working as an employee, you should use your opportunities to rest. Being an employee does not mean that you cannot rest well.
What opportunities now?
Breaks Between Works
Every company usually gives its employees time to have lunch. But it is better for you to use these periods well.
If possible, take a break from the company’s atmosphere to change your mood. You can also use relaxation techniques to reduce your stress. In this way, you can take time to rest and be fresher for the rest of the working day.
Weekend Break
In addition to daily breaks, be sure to set aside time for weekend rest. Use this time to have fun, spend time with loved ones and recharge yourself.
In addition to using these tips, you can try to balance your life by reading the article on creating a balance between work and life.
Rest And Relax Mindfully!
The key is to find a routine that allows you to stay focused and entertained throughout your day. Is to pay attention to your energy levels and take breaks to refresh your mind when you feel tired or lack of focus, we all need to learn to relax from time to time and for each of us it might be a different form of relaxation for some of us just resting on the sofa while watching TV is all we want during the workdays and going for an adventure in the weekends may be the form of refreshment and relaxation that we need, and for some of us bringing some excitement to our daily life is what makes us feel refreshed and relaxed, while for some it may be just spending some quality time with their loved ones. You can try different methods to determine what works best for you and your lifestyle or even combine some of them or come up with something new by trying different things, it is not the same method for all of us and many of us may enjoy different habits and methods based on our own desires, but there is definitely few things that will work our just fine for you and make your rest and relaxation actually work really well for you, and you won’t know unless you go ahead and try them!
In general, resting in a healthy and useful way is necessary to increase the efficiency of your mind. We do need to relax once in a while. Because I’m sure you have experiences that proved you that when your mind is relaxed and highly efficient, you feel better, think sharper and even make better decisions. Better decisions mean progress and having a successful life! So if you did not take it seriously until now. Make sure to relax your mind and have a useful rest for your mind and body wellbeing.
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