Written by: Dr. Tonia Winchester, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
I was knocked down pretty hard by COVID. I haven’t been that sick in a long time. Probably since when I was a kid. Until that point, I had been riding through the pandemic physically unscathed.
Frankly, I didn’t expect that I would get so sick. I live a healthy life and my habits are aligned to and supportive of immune regulation and balance.
But wow, did it ever hit me. All I could do was attempt to sleep. Sometimes it hurts to open my eyes. I had a three-day fever. Halfway through my back started spasming. That made it incredibly uncomfortable to cough, which means I was uncomfortable a lot.
One morning I just cried. Copiously. Thankfully that day I had a session with my brain-based transformation coach and teacher. She helped me, just as I help my clients, to look at what was happening in a different way.
She helped me to remember that the miserable symptoms that my intelligent immune system was creating against this virus had an intended benefit or purpose.
She prompted me, “What were you meant to learn from this?”
And what arose spontaneously from my unconscious mind was this:
I need rest.
True confessions here, I’m not great at a specific type of rest. I call it active rest where you push the pause button on the busyness of life and just… well… pause.
This is different from what I call passive rest, aka sleep. I’m very good at that type of rest.
I sleep well and I have good nighttime hygiene and bedtime routines. But it’s hard for me to actively rest because I typically want the time I spend to have some sort of measurable outcome at the end of it.
Empty space on the calendar? No thanks. I must keep doing things. Often if I have a spare 30 minutes, I’ll doodle a drawing or write a letter. I’ll read a chapter of a book to improve my knowledge in an area or to give me more tools to help my clients.
At the end of the 30 minutes, I will have accomplished something. I get the satisfaction of putting a little checkmark in a box.
The type of active rest I’m talking about does not meet the criteria of being able to check a specific box when it’s done.
I’m sharing this because I have a feeling that this is not just a me problem. I suspect that this is a societal, human problem. Maybe that’s you too. Are you somebody who has trouble pushing the pause button?
For the 6 months before contracting COVID, I took very little, if any pause. I was working tirelessly to get my book, Smiling in the Shower, out into the world.
And yet under the surface, I was saying to myself, “I need rest… I need a break… I need to rest…” So when this opportunistic virus came along, the conditions inside my mind and body were perfect for it to land and take hold.
I’m wondering if I had been purposely choosing more active rest time if I would have gotten so sick. Of course, it’s impossible to know for sure, but I do know that if it was rest that I needed, COVID was an awful way to experience it.
The type of active rest I’m talking about used to feel totally unproductive to me. There’s no check box! That used to be my belief system around it, and is likely why I didn’t commit to it.
However, now I see that active rest is differently productive.
Just like sleeping eight hours a night is differently productive than exercising 30 to 60 minutes every day, active rest is a different type of productivity.
I realized when my unconscious mind told me that I needed rest, that I needed to have a plan. I needed to cultivate and schedule periods of active rest on a regular basis. While there will be times of spontaneous active rest, I’m also committing to putting it on the calendar, because as Marie Forleo says, “If it’s not scheduled, it’s not real.”
In order to help me do this, I wrote a list of active rest possibilities. I thought I would share it with you in case you’re stuck in the modern society go, go, go mentality like I was.
Hopefully, this will inspire you to be proactive about finding pockets of balance in your life so that you experience resilience even and especially in the face of challenges. Who knows, maybe it will even boost your immune system?
Upon first glance, the list looks like it’s full of unproductive things because there appears to be no outcome that happens as a result. While from the outside it might seem like you’re doing nothing, what's important is that from the inside it feels like you’re doing everything, in a good, kind, present, and compassionate way.
And that is the purpose. The intention is to pause, and connect to an internal sense of well-being and to the awareness that is all around you. It’s also very helpful to inspire your creativity.
Before I share the list here are some guidelines to make the best out of your active rest time:
Put your phone away. Far away. Keeping it close will be too tempting to pick it up out of habit… you know… just in case… If you need your phone for your timer, then keep it on silent or do not disturb. I have a $10 timer from the kitchen store so I don’t need to have my phone nearby at all.
Get as close to nature as possible, even if you’re inside looking out a window.
Pick one of your 5 senses to focus on. Or engage as many senses as possible. Check-in with each one in turn… what are you seeing? Hearing? Feeling against your skin or body? Smelling? Even tasting?
Go solo. You’ll get the most out of this type of active rest when you’re on your own. This is about pausing the external world and pressing play on the magic that is swirling around within your inner world.**
Put this time on your calendar. You can even start with 1 minute, and build up over several days to 15 or 20 minutes.
Be open to your inner experience and mega creativity downloads. You’re going to be deeply connected to resourceful ideas. It might be helpful to have a pen and notebook (not your phone) nearby.
Avoid verbal or oral input from others. This means skip any shows, podcasts, books, documentaries, etc.
20 Ways to get the Benefits of Active Rest:
Sit in nature. Any kind of natural environment will do. If the weather stinks, sit by a window. Watch how the raindrops run down the glass.
Find a body of water that moves. It could be a stream, river, ocean, or even a pond or lake on a slightly breezy day. Watch it. Listen to it.
Fire gaze. Let your eyes dance gently over the flames of a candle or fireplace as they unpredictably move about. Yes! The fire channel on the TV counts.
Swing in a hammock.
Forest bath. Find a spot in the woods to watch and listen to the wind in the trees. Breathe deeply and smell the fresh scents.
Plant yourself on a park bench or picnic blanket and gaze at the world as it moves past you or around you.
Practice Tai Chi or Qigong.
Walk a labyrinth if you have access to one in your community, or do a walking meditation by walking very slowly. Barefoot is helpful. Notice how your feet feel with each step.
Get down on the floor with your dog, put your hand on their belly and feel them breathe as they sleep.
Watch art process videos on YouTube with the sound and subtitles turned off. Just observe people creating things in a soft and distant way.
Have a bath.
Dunk in a hot tub.
Enjoy Bowen therapy. Ask the therapist to have a silent session.
Book a Craniosacral therapy session. Ditto on asking for the silent session.
Watch nature documentaries with the sound off. Let your mind wander as you imagine what the animals are doing.
If you’re in a noisy environment, put on headphones and listen to a beautiful soothing piece of lyric-free music.
Listen to a podcast in a language that you don’t know how to speak or understand. Do this while finding something to let your gaze rest on (any of the above ideas will do).
Pet your cat while they purr.
Go to an aquarium or pet store and watch the fish swim about.
Lie in the grass and consider the clouds as they float by.
To reiterate, whatever type of active rest you choose, your focus is about awareness and all the things that you can be aware of through your senses. It’s less about the interpretation or creating meaning, and entirely about observing and being aware.
This type of still and conscious presence connects the outer and inner worlds and brings you more in alignment to the beauty that’s all around you. Being aware of this beauty is incredibly revitalizing.
Since you’re made of the matter that beauty is within you as well. Sometimes you just have to stop and rest for a minute or fifteen to remember this.
** If being alone with your thoughts feels scary to you that is completely understandable and is exactly what I help my clients with. It’s possible that there may be past experiences and even traumas that are causing this discomfort. In that case, I highly encourage you to reach out to see if working together would be a good fit. I help my clients change their internal landscape so that they’re primed for ease, peace, and calmness in their minds and bodies. It’s possible to change the internal tape so that you LOVE hanging out with your inside self.
To your Transformation,
Dr. Tonia Winchester, ND
Brain-Based Transformational Guide
Certified NLP and Time Line Therapy ® Practitioner
Dr. Tonia Winchester, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Dr. Tonia has been practicing as a Naturopathic Doctor since 2007. With contemporary neurological reprogramming techniques, she helps women overcome burnout, stress, anxiety, and fatigue. Essentially she helps them calm their minds, sleep deeply, and find joy and energy in their lives again. Guiding clients through a "Breakthrough" process, they recode their unconscious minds for change, self-care, and success, priming them to create new, healthy, sustainable habits. Dr. Tonia has been featured on CTV, the Costco Connection, The Elephant Journal, Conscious Nutrition, The Autoimmune Simplified Podcast, and the New Generation Entrepreneur Podcast. Ultimately she helps everyday people create exceptional lives for themselves and their communities. To learn more about her brain-based coaching breakthroughs, head on over to https://www.toniawinchester.com/breakthrough/
