Rest(oration)

It’s vacation season. But do you know how to rest?

Rest is harder and more complicated than you might think. And it’s even more important than you know. For most if us, truly restorative rest, battery-charging rest, may be more than lying in a hammock all day or binge-watching repeat episodes of Friends.

We live in a culture that depletes us. Work depletes us. Social trauma depletes us. Making decisions, whether at work or at home depletes us. You can’t just sleep off that kind of depletion.

According to Physician Saundra Dalton-Smith, we need seven kinds of rest: physical (both active and passive); mental; emotional; sensory; creative; social; and spiritual. Dr. Daulton-Smith’s nifty online quiz will help you pinpoint your own rest deficits and offers tips for exploring the restorative practices you may be lacking.

Just one caveat: don’t ‘should’ your way through this. Approach it with ease, with a sense that knowing more about what really restores you offers new possibilities. Approach these options in a spirit of play, in a spirit of curiosity. Make this a no-striving zone. Striving is usually part of the problem.

Rest well, friends.