Holistic Health At Work: How to Relax…Hint: You’re Doing It Wrong!

There’s nothing like coming home from work, even if that just means logging off your laptop, to kickback on the couch and enjoy your favorite alcoholic beverage…or is there?

Most people opt for mindless scrolling on social media, binge watching Netflix or having a few alcoholic bevvies as a means to wind down from yet another stressful day on the job. You may notice, overtime, these habits become less and less fulfilling and might even leave you feeling more depleted. This is due to the lack of variety in relaxation methods.

Enter: The 7 Zones of Rest. In Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith’s book Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity; she presents the idea that we need a variety of different types of rest to be the best version of ourselves.

Let’s take a look at the 7 types of rest:

Physical

Signs you need Physical Rest: You are on your feet a lot for work, experience body aches or live a sedentary lifestyle.

Types of Physical Rest: There are two forms of physical rest: active and passive. Active includes restorative physical activities such as walking, yoga, stretching, or getting a massage. If you live a sedentary lifestyle or sit a lot during your work hours, your body will need these active forms of physical rest. Passive activities include taking a nap or improving your sleep quality or quantity.

Mental

Signs you need Mental Rest: You have a racing mind, have trouble falling asleep due to ruminating thoughts, have poor concentration and/or are forgetful.

Types of Mental Rest: Taking time to clear your mind is the theme of mental rest. Try scheduling short breaks during work day as “think free” time to clear your mental chatter. You could keep a notepad nearby to write down your thoughts, this ensures you remember the idea while reducing your mental clutter. If near a window, you can look outside into the distance, this also helps to reduce anxiety. Do your best to stay off technology during this time to minimize the stimulus and dopamine hits.

Spiritual

Signs you need Spiritual Rest: You have a feeling that your work is missing meaning, you are not making a difference in the world and/or you lack a sense of belonging.

Types of Spiritual Rest: Spend time connecting into your purpose, join a like-minded community, or volunteer for a cause you are passionate about.

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Emotional

Signs you need Emotional Rest: You feel that you are keeping a lot of emotions bottled up, you do not feel safe to express your authentic self.

Types of Emotional Rest: As a way to express your feelings you can journal daily or write yourself a letter of forgiveness. An important component of emotional rest is to surround yourself in an environment where you can be fully authentic.

Creative

Signs you need Creative Rest: You feel as though you are creatively burnt-out. You have a hard time being innovative, brainstorming, and/or problem solving.

Types of Creative Rest: Spend time surrounding yourself with creative inspiration. Typically, this is increasing time spent enjoying the arts, such as dance, music, or architecture. You can go to an art gallery or museum to immerse yourself in others creative expressions. You can buy a coloring book or painting supplies to create your own pieces. You can also go for walks outdoors to draw inspiration from nature.

Sensory

Signs you need Sensory Rest: Our brains and bodies have been exposed to exponentially increasing amounts of sensory inputs from: lights, phone notifications, sounds, which leaves us exhausted from overstimulation. This stimulus doesn’t just come from technology, it can come from the constant bustling from children, barking from the dog or fidgeting of a partner.

Over the past two years, there has been an exponential increase in sensory rest deficit. If you notice you are becoming increasingly irritable to these inputs, especially as the day progresses, this is a good sign you may be experiencing sensory overload.

Types of Sensory Rest: Sensory rest most commonly reduces visual and auditory stimulation. Reducing the sensory triggers from technology can be very impactful forms of rest.

This can look like putting your phone on Do Not Disturb, Airplane Mode, disabling notifications from non-urgent apps, or putting your phone on vibrate. Spending time in a float tank, hot bath or in mediation are other forms of sensory rest.

Social

Signs you need Social Rest: If you have been craving alone time or feel drained when you are around others, this is a sign you require social rest. Often, social and emotion rest coexist.

Types of Social Rest: The best antidote to a social rest deficit is to spend time with yourself. This can be watching a movie alone, going to your favorite restaurant alone, laying on the beach or reading a book. If you do choose to go out in social settings during times where you need social rest, ensure you surround yourself with people who will give you energy and not take from it. Caregivers can find the balance to be difficult when spending time with family members.

Last Tips..

All seven forms of rest are required to mitigate burnout. If you have identified needing multiple forms of rest that is common.

Here are some tips for implementing the seven zones of rest into your life, with minimal overwhelm:

Start with where you have the greatest rest deficit. Reflect on where you use the most energy throughout your day. If your job is highly analytical, you will likely need more mental rest. If you are surrounded by people all day, you will likely need more emotional and social rest.
Identify if there are any activities you have a strong preference for, which could associate with multiple forms of rest. For example, reading a book could be a form of social, mental, physical, sensory, and creative rest (depending on the genre). Going for a walk in the woods ticks a lot of these boxes as well.
Start small. Prioritize which zone(s) of rest you need most and schedule it daily or multiple times a week. If you choose to do mediation or journaling, you can start at 5-10 minutes per day. Incorporating active physical rest, such as walking, can be done twice a day for 15 minutes.
Plan daily, weekly and monthly activities to fill your cup back up. If you decide you want to take a half-day or full day without a social commitment or go for a long walk in nature, you can plan those on a weekly or monthly cadence. Scheduling rest based on priority and what is realistic for your life is key.

It's important to note that you are not expected to do all forms of rest everyday. However, to be the most fulfilled and resilient to stress, all zones of rest need to be incorporated into your life on a regular basis. Do you regularly incorporate all seven zone of rest into your life, or do you only focus on a few?

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Meet The Writer!

Hello! My name is Jessica Lamothe and I am a Holistic Health Coach with a mission to liberate individuals from chronic illness so that they can reach their full potential. Having been on the brink of autoimmune disease and burnout myself, I am passionate about educating about the body’s stress response and holistic lifestyle and nutrition practices which restore people to optimal health. I’d love to connect with you on Instagram @get.in.health

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Holistic Health At Work: How to Relax…Hint-You’re Doing It Wrong!