Give the gift of rest (to yourself)

I often talk about the “doing” side of self-care.  Take action.  Do something different.  Hint hint…I will continue to speak about this!  BUT what is equally as important as taking action?  REST!

While the holidays are a time for hustling and bustling around for many, I cannot express the importance of rest enough! 

Now what exactly do I mean by rest?  Does it mean sit on the couch and binge on Netflix?  (Not that anything is wrong with that 😉…any Murderville fans out there???)  Contrary to what you might believe, rest does not mean being sedentary. 

The obvious form of rest is sleep.  Let’s be honest, quality sleep is one of the most important, if not the most important, aspects of good health.  But what other types of rests are there?  There is active rest (which sounds counter-intuitive, but I promise it is not).  Stretching and restorative yoga are just a couple of examples of active rest.

Sleep, stretching, restorative yoga, and the likes are types of rest for your physical body.  How about rest for your mind?  Although sleep can be helpful for your body, if you go to bed with your mind racing most likely you aren’t fully resting.  And what a bummer is that?!?!

Give these tips a try to rest your mind!

1.       Calgon take me away!  (Don’t tell me you’re not familiar with this reference!  Just Google it 😊).  Taking a warm bath quiets the mind and at the same time relaxes the body.

2.       Listen to music.  I mean really listen to music.  Don’t just have it as background noise but listen to the instruments, listen to the words. 

3.       Give me a break!  Set your timer to take a 5 minute break each hour, like a mini reset.  No matter what you are doing, pause.  Get up and walk around.  Do a quick stretch. Call a friend for a quick chat.