Neela Pirwitz, is a Jay Shetty certified burnout-prevention and well-being coach. She studied psychology and is now working for an international organization. Based in the Netherlands and coaching globally, she is working with professionals who want to become more efficient in how they work, create a better work-life balance, or restructure their routines and habits to prevent burnout.
Resting is more than watching your favourite show after work or going to sleep early. To really recover from the stressors of our life, and actively work against burnout, we need to understand which aspect of our life needs rest and how to rest effectively. Saundra Dalton-Smith’s 7 kinds of rest help us identify the rest we need to consider to prevent burnout actively.
Is this you right now? Work has been tough lately, but there were deadlines after deadlines that needed to be met. You are starting to get used to the stress and wondering if it was ever really any more relaxed than it is now. When the next project comes along you squeeze that into your schedule too. What’s one more thing after all? It can’t be that much worse than what you are handling already.
This happens a lot. Stress builds over time, and constantly increases ever so slightly until we lose track of what used to be “normal” and how much we should be able to handle compared to what we are actually handling. This constant increase of stress can lead to burnout if we don’t manage it properly. It may show up as energy depletion, cynicism or general exhaustion. While the workplace is often viewed as the main origin of burnout, burnout can occur due to chronic stress in any area of life. The key factor is, that stress is chronic and unmanaged, whether due to a job or taking care of a sick family member.
While it is impossible to avoid every stressful period, we don’t have to live with the constant fear of potential burnout. Instead, we can learn to rest actively and reduce the likelihood of burnout manifesting.
Active rest
You might think rest is rest, as long as I am not working or engaging with the aspect of my life I am stressed about, I am taking a break. Therefore, resting. While this is true, it is also not quite as easy. For many of us resting means getting home after a long day of work, turning on our favourite show and simultaneously scrolling through social media. This mainly helps us to not think about the source of our stress. But it is not restorative. It won’t actually help us feel recovered or get our energy back. To get restorative rest, and charge our batteries, we require resting actively. You might wonder, how can it be rest if I need to be active? Aren’t those mutually exclusive? Not quite. Active rest means understanding which type of rest we need, and then taking active steps to recover. Saundra Dalton-Smith identified seven types of rest, each with its own way of recovering. Actively identifying which part of our lives we need rest in and then taking tailored breaks can help us to create balance and sustainably prevent burnout.
Physical rest
This form of rest is probably the most straightforward and the one we think of first when thinking of resting. Physical rest means resting your body, through for example sleep. Depending on your lifestyle, and line of work, physical rest can vary. If you are working physically and move your body a lot throughout the week, physical rest can include activities such as getting a massage or taking a nap. However, if you have an office job and are sedentary for most of your day, physical rest can include activities such as yoga, stretching or exercising. Essentially you want to create a counterpart to your stressor so that you can achieve balance.
Mental rest
Have you ever felt like your brain is going into overdrive? Thoughts are circling and somehow you can’t slow them down until at some point you are not even sure what you were thinking about?
This can be a sign that you need mental rest. Mental rest will not come from sleeping alone. While sleep allows us to turn off the conscious part of our brain, subconsciously it is still processing the day. Consequently, if your brain is in overdrive during the day, your brain will try to process all of these thoughts while you are asleep. This increased workload for your brain can lead to you waking up feeling groggy and like you didn’t get nearly enough sleep. So, rather than relying on sleep, actively incorporate mental rest into your day to help your brain slow down. A good way to do this is to take regular breaks. Especially when working on a screen getting up, moving around and having a chat with a coworker can feel quite rejuvenating. Additionally, it can be helpful to keep a notebook to write down your thoughts. You can do this either at regular times as part of your routine, like in the morning after waking up, or throughout the day whenever you need it.
Often releasing your thoughts from your mind and onto paper frees up space in your mind and provides an instant feeling of relief.
Sensory rest
As mentioned above, we often rest from looking at our big screen by looking at our smaller screen. While also watching a medium-sized screen. The constantly changing pictures and colours these screens provide, coupled with being reachable at all times of the day can quickly lead to a sensory overload. Not to mention that we often use multiple senses at once, never really focusing on what we experience. To balance this out, we can actively deprive ourselves of certain senses. Of course, there is the possibility to visit a sensory deprivation tank. This treatment will have you float in a water tank in which you can neither see nor hear much. But you can also deprive yourself of certain senses from the comfort of your own home. What about closing your eyes for a few minutes and just sitting in silence?
Emotional rest
Emotional rest is especially important for the people-pleasers among us. Trying to make everything right for everyone else is exhausting. This is why it is important to have a social circle in which we feel supported and seen. Authentic connections can help us open up about what we need, want and how we really feel. These are the people we can vent about our day to, without fearing being judged. This too, will create a counterpart to pleasing others, and bring us back to equilibrium.
Social rest
Closely tied to emotional rest is social rest. Social rest means to recover from, or through, social interactions. On the one hand, social rest can mean spending time with the people you are close to. Those who provide you with emotional rest too, rather than forced business meetings and client interactions. On the other hand, social rest is related to your social battery. To rest in the right way for you, you first need to ask yourself, am I an introvert or an extrovert? Phrased differently, do interactions with other people drain you or do they energise you? If you are introverted, you will probably want to spend some time by yourself to recharge. While you might enjoy interacting with others, at a certain point you can’t wait to go home and be alone. If on the other hand, you are an extrovert, social interactions provide you with energy. You thrive around other people and it drains you to be alone for too long. Depending on your personality, make sure to take the time to either spend time by yourself or to plan activities with friends where you might even be able to meet new people.
Creative rest
Similar to physical rest, the best way to creatively rest depends a lot on your job. If you are working in a field that requires you to deal with a lot of data, and more theoretical thinking, creative rest can look like taking time to paint, write or sing, or to go to a museum and appreciate the art. If you are working in a creative field, however, you might struggle with writer’s block or a creative dry spell. In this case, creative rest can look like getting away from your creative project and engaging in other inspiring activities. In both cases going out in nature and appreciating your surroundings can be restorative.
Spiritual rest
Spiritual rest is all about connecting with something bigger than ourselves. This can be through religion and prayer, or mindfulness and meditation. But, you don’t need to be religious or spiritual to rest this way. You might also want to engage in community work or volunteer for a cause close to your heart.
Just like every person is different, their needs for rest are different too. Whether you need physical, mental or emotional rest, actively investing some time to recover in this area can make you feel more at ease and balanced, which can in turn help you prevent burnout. As your circumstances change your need for rest will change too. Hence it is helpful to reevaluate your situation regularly. Adjusting the level and focus of rest will let you take individualised steps to prevent burnout.
Neela Pirwitz, Performance and Well-Being Coach
Neela Pirwitz, is a Jay Shetty certified burnout-prevention and well-being coach. She studied psychology and is now working for an international organization. Based in the Netherlands and coaching globally, she is working with professionals who want to become more efficient in how they work, create a better work-life balance, or restructure their routines and habits to prevent burnout. Neela’s mission is to help her clients to fit their work into their life, rather than life into their work.
