Why Do You Need Different Types of Rest?
7 types of rest that you should incorporate in your daily life to overcome burnout
Monday I had an interesting conversation on an IG Live with Jess from @get.in.health where we talk about different kinds of rest.
In this article I’m going to talk about these 7 types of rest that we need in order to maximize our health, well-being and ultimately conquer and overcome burnout.
Like I briefly mentioned in my article What is Mental Burnout and How to overcome it, in order to overcome any type of burnout, we have to rest the right way.
Not all rest is created equal: depending on the type of work we do and the type of stress we’re exposed to, we need different types of rest to replenish our energy, recover, heal and support our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health and well-being.
That’s where different types of rest come into play.
The 7 Types of Rest
In her book Sacred Rest, Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith writes and talks about 7 types of rest that we need based on what we do.
These 7 types of rest are:
- Physical rest
- Mental rest
- Creative rest
- Emotional rest
- Spiritual rest
- Social rest
- Sensory rest
These 7 types of rest fit elegantly into my philosophy of The Four Pillars of Health and Burnout:
- Physical rest falls into the first pillar The Body and The Physical Realm
- Social rest and Sensory rest fall into the second pillar The Lifestyle, to which I would add Environmental rest,
- Mental, Emotional and Creative rest fall into the third pillar The Mind and The Emotional Realm,
- and Spiritual rest falls into the fourth pillar The Soul and The Spiritual Health.
Why Do You Need Different Types of Rest?
Even though burnout sometimes feels like we’re just physically tired and that we just need physical rest, there’s more to it than just that.
Things are interconnected and interdependent — that’s why we need to think and approach things holistically.
The realms of body, mind and soul/spirit are not separate from each other, but they are connected to each other and form a whole: when one of these three areas experiences brokenness, the symptoms manifest in all other areas/realms.
The physical realm is the base — the foundation, the most fundamental part — so often a lot of physical burnout symptoms are just a sign that something in either of the areas — lifestyle, mental, emotional, or spiritual — doesn’t work right.
But if we focus and try to fix solely the symptoms — in this case the physical symptoms of burnout — we’re just managing symptoms and not fixing the root cause.
That why we have to evaluate where things don’t work as they should, in which areas we’re struggling and which type of rest we need more of.
Let’s go through each type of the rest.
Physical Rest
Physical burnout occurs when we physically push our bodies too much for too long.
Maybe we’ve been over exercising. Maybe we’ve had too many training sessions or sessions that were too demanding on our body and our body couldn’t recover. Maybe we haven’t allowed our bodies to fully recover between sessions.
Maybe we haven’t got enough, good quality sleep which further diminished our ability to recover and compromised our health and well-being.
Maybe we haven’t been eating right. Maybe we haven’t fueled our bodies enough. Maybe we haven’t been eating enough and have been dieting too much by restricting calories and macronutrients too much for too long.
Maybe we’ve accumulated a lot of physical stress and tension in our body because of having too demanding workouts, because we’ve been skipping stretching or we’ve been in one certain position for too long.
Symptoms of lack of Physical Rest:
- Lack energy and strength to do physical tasks or workout,
- A lot of physical tension in the body,
- Feeling of heaviness,
- Muscles pain and soreness,
- Compromised recovery after workouts
- Compromised Immune system and frequent sickness,
- Digestive issues and not messed up gut due to accumulated physical stress and tension.
Activities for Physical Rest:
There are two different types of physical rest: active and passive rest.
Passive Rest:
- Sleep,
- Napping,
- Stillness Practices: Deep Healing Meditation, Breathwork, Flotation and Sensory Deprivation Tanks, Yoga — Shavasana…
Active Rest:
- Active mobility during the day (stretching, changing position, gentle motion),
- Light and Recovery Work & Exercise: Walking, Stretching and Yoga, Foam rolling,…
- Taking a Bath, Doing Cold-Hot Contrast Therapy, Sauna, Cold Therapy…
- Massages: Muscle and Deep Tissue Massages,
- Exercise called “Shaking & Dancing” to release the physical tension and accumulated stress from your body
Mental and Creative Rest
Although Mental and Creating Rest are two different kinds, in my oppinion they are pretty similar.
Mental and Creative Burnout occur after a longer period of increased mental and creative demands.
They occur after a longer period of increased mental demands. When we’re under a lot of mental stress. When we do a lot of deep mental and creative work. When our work requires a lot of mental concentration. When we at the time consume and are exposed to a lot of information and mental stimuli. And when we mentally push ourselves for too hard and too long without a proper break or quality rest.
Overactivity of the brain leads to brain cells becoming exhausted which results in mental fatigue and mental burnout.
Symptoms of lack of Mental and Creative Rest:
- Feeling mentally and physically tired and exhausted,
- Waking up drained and not fresh
- Having hard time to focus, concentrate and do mental work,
- Experiencing “brain fog” and inability to think clearly,
- Loss of drive and motivation,
- Feeling irritated, frustrated and overwhelmed at the same time,
- Problems with sleep: racing mind when trying to fall asleep, waking up during the night with racing thoughts, insomnia,
- Having creative blocks: can’t do creative work
- Problems with mental health: anxiety, melancholy and even depression.
Activities for Mental and Creative Rest:
- Activities where our minds can rest and recover
- Stillness Practices: Meditations, Breathwork, Flotation and Sensory Deprivation Tanks, Yoga — Shavasana…
- Spending time in nature, away from our mental and creative work: going for walks and hikes, visiting parks, spending time by the water (rivers, seas, oceans…)
- Light mental activities: activities that don’t require a lot of mental focus: coloring books, drawing, playing games, …
- Build a regular Sabbath into your weekly life and routine: one day of not doing anything work-related.
You can learn more about mental burnout and which activities you can add into your life that will help you to recover from it in the article below:
Emotional rest
Emotional Burnout occurs after a period of emotionally challenging situations and time.
When you’re around people and situations that are pretty emotionally difficult and challenging. When we’re dealing with a lot of negative people and negative emotions. If we’re “people pleaser”. If you don’t allow yourself to be true to how you feel: you fake your emotions, put on a smile, not be authentic to how you feel. When we don’t know how to process those negative emotions or if we don’t allow yourself to feel emotions, you ignore them and you then store them in your body.
Symptoms of lack of Emotional Rest:
- You feel sad, in the blue, melancholy without a “good reason”,
- You feel “empty”, “numb” and not caring,
- You can’t handle well difficult, stressful and emotional situations,
- Problems with mental health: anxiety, melancholy and even depression.
- Digestive issues: emotions are stored in your organs and your abdominal area so they negatively affect and impact your digestion.
Activities for Emotional Rest:
- Allow yourself the space and time to express your emotions: to a therapist, to a good friend, by journaling,
- Allow yourself the space and time for emotional detox: tears, crying, shouting, …
- Extract stored emotions from your body: with breathwork, stretching, Shaking & Dancing, Screaming & Shouting…
- Be emotionally true to yourself: don’t ignore your emotions and feel them fully.
Spiritual rest
Spiritual Burnout occurs when we get lost in today’s world of meaningless connections and we get lost in jobs that we don’t find fulfillment and purpose in. Spiritual Burnout also occurs then we lose the connection to a Higher Power — something that is bigger than us: The God, The Universe, Mother Nature, Our Higher Self…
Symptoms of Spiritual Burnout:
- You feel disconnected from the Divine, others and your true self
- You feel that you don’t belong
- You feel something is missing and you don’t know what
- You feel like you’re doing something that is not meaningful, that is not aligned with your purpose and mission in life,
- You feel “empty”, “numb” and not caring,
- You have problems with mental health: anxiety, melancholy and even depression.
Activities for Spiritual Rest:
- Deep Meditation
- Identifying and doing something that is you feel called for, you feel purpose, passion and mission for,
- Cultivate true connections and community,
- Engage in prayer and connecting to something bigger than yourself: The God, The Universe, Mother Nature, Our Higher Self…
Social Rest
There are two parts of “Social Burnout”: feeling burned out due to too much social interaction and feeling burned out due to lack of real, genuine social interaction.
We all have different personalities: some of us are introverts while others are extroverts. Introverts gain energy and thrive by being alone while big and long social interactions drain them, extraverts thrive in social interactions and being alone kills and drains them.
But despite these differences, we all need some time alone: to process things, to gain clarity on our lives — to engage in that Social Rest.
And at the same time, in today’s modern world where social media and the internet allow us to be more connected than ever, we often lack real social interaction and true meaningful relationships.
Symptoms of lack of Social Rest:
- You feel alone and isolated,
- You feel drained from being around people,
- You’re longing for some alone time,
- You miss real genuine social interaction and connections,
- You miss being part of a real community of people who will understand and accept you.
Activities for Social Rest:
- Prioritize and book some “Alone Time”: time where you’re alone and you don’t engage in any social interaction: an evening alone, a walk in nature with your dog,
- Hang out with people that you love, that fill you up, accept you for who you are and make you feel good,
- Join a community of like-minded people,
- Say no to activities and interactions with people and communities that you don’t feel good with and you feel are draining you.
Sensory and Environmental Rest
In our modern world where technology has a more important role each day, we’re getting exposed to a ton of information and external stimuli.
Our modern work and society also makes us live in an environment that is very far from our natural habits and away from nature.
Constant information and stimulation from our mobile phone and news on TV. Bright LED lights. Bad, non-fresh air. No natural sunlight or air. Bad energy of the modern building and center (eg. shopping center). Constant loud and upbeat music in our background.
This excessive exposure to non-stop sensory information and stimuli and unnatural environments saturate and overload our senses and makes us exhausted.
Sensory and Environmental Rest in my opinion go hand in hand. Sensory Rest is depriving your sense of information and stimuli, while Environmental Rest is spending time away from all the technology and modern-world environments.
Symptoms of lack of Sensory and Environmental Rest:
- You feel irritated, angry and agitated after being exposed to a lot of external stimuli and artificial environments,
- You have racing thoughts, palpitations, anxiety,
- You have troubles falling asleep and you have disturbing dreams,
- You feel “numb” and disconnected from the world around you and it’s difficult for you to be present and mindful,
- You crave alone time away from people, technology and artificial environments.
- Your hunger and thirst signal change and you crave sugary foods and drinks.
Activities for Social Rest:
- Unplug: take regular breaks away from stimulation and technology: that includes social media, news, TV, watching screens, blue light.
- Spend time in Nature without looking at your phone and consuming information and stimuli,
- Pictures of Nature: Some studies found that just by looking or resting your eyes on pictures of nature has a positive effect on our current mood and well-being.
- Spend time in silence: eliminate all sounds and background noises and give your senses some break,
- 20–20–20 Rule: take a 20s break every 20 min and view something at least 20 feet (6 meters) away,
- Practice Wide Peripheral Gaze or Panoramic Vision
Like we saw in the article, there are different types of burnout and rest.
So in order to overcome burnout, we have to know which type of burnout it is that you suffer from and then choose the right rest according to your needs and requirements.
I’m working on a course about how to prevent and recover from burnout. In the course I’ll teach you everything I learned from my burnout journey, including how to improve and elevate all four pillars of the body in much more detail.
The course is in the making, but you can join the waitlist and get updates on its progress and when it’s about to launch.
Members of the waitlist will get a limited special offer when the course launches, so make sure to secure your spot and grab that special offer!
Join the Waitlist Now!
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Love and take care of yourself, forget about worries and enjoy life!
~ Jani
