Have you ever slept for a long time and woken up even “tiredier” than you went to sleep? This was me some days ago. I had reduced my interaction in communities, stopped travelling, stopped going out, minimized work etc but I was still tired.
I decided to start researching about how to rest properly and this was when I discovered that even though i was doing the right things, I wasn’t truly resting. I collated this info from multiple sources and I’m hoping it’ll be useful to someone else too.
Here are things I am starting to adopt in order to rest properly
Change your environment: This was the biggest for me. One of the reasons I was super tired is because I stayed in the same environment all the time. I work from home, eat at home, and sleep at home. It also didn’t help that I lived in a studio apartment. (I finally moved to somewhere bigger 2 weeks ago). Even though i love my home and try to make the ambience as restful as possible, My brain started to associate it and other indoor places with stress. Going to the office helped a bit but I needed the complete opposite of my default environment. Taking a walk in a forest did the trick. No computers no phones. Just me walking aimlessly up and down in a huge park helped me feel relaxed.
Listen to relaxing audio: It’s nice to listen to Asake and partying music sometimes but worship music and relaxing songs are so impactful to our rest. I sometimes sleep with sleep sounds like rain, white noise etc and my sleep feels so much better. I recently saw somewhere that you can listen to the book of Psalms as you sleep. Very soothing.. Psalms is a book of poems anyway.
Take time out to Think about your day: After working hard every day, one way to help your brain relax is to think back and reflect on the day. If possible write it down. It could be about what went wrong, right or just your gratitude for the day. This helps your brain not jump directly into the next high-stress activity you have lined up for it. It also helps you produce feel-good hormones (nostalgia, gratitude etc)
Set time aside for Sabbath: Sabbath is a whole book on its own. It’s a practise of taking a day in the week (the Sabbath day) and dedicating it to work, happiness, family and rest. The concept of Sabbath is so broad and so interesting, I’ll recommend that you do your self study on it,
Find somewhere that makes you feel closer to God and go there as often as you can if possible, daily: This could be a place in your home or a call you join or the jogging path you take. Some people feel closer to God near water while some do on mountain tops. It doesn’t matter where works for you. If you find it, grab it and go there. It also doesn’t have to be a big deal. It could just be when you are having coffee or a quiet lunch. Theres no one side fits all for this. Wherever you tend to find God, go there as often as possible. God is looking forward to fwllowshipping with you.
Spend time with a friend and enjoy their company: Another way to relax is with people. I kinda argued with this because while i love hanging out, being around people exhausts me. I need time in silence to recover from crowds or hangouts. However there are just some people we have in our lives that talking to them or being with them seems to give us more life. If you don’t have people like these, pleas eget people like this in your life. We are not meant to do life alone.
Start your day with Prayer: This is importan for two reasons.
- Genuingly Casting your Cares on God kinda gives you peace and the strength to get throught the day
- Listening to Gods Instrustions and aligning with his will is a way to work from rest. You will get directions to do the things you actually should be doing
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:28-30 MSG
He ·lets me rest [makes me lie down] in green pastures. He leads me to ·calm [quiet] water. Psalm 23:2New International Version
Schedule your rest: Yea, Life can get so overwhelming that we have everything else scheduled but no rest. This is a sure way to burn out. If you truely want to be intentional about anything, you need to make out time for that thing and that includes rest. Schedule your meditation, Spa, and even quiet times.
Practise resting and switching off: sometime you just need to go off the grid and sped time with yourself. This helps to silence the hyperactive hive mind which is one of the major causes of burnout and stress
Find something you are passionate about and do it: This is one of the reasons I am writing this blogpost. I truely enjoy writng but life sometimes gets in the way. This is much harder to do when your passion = your work. I reccomend you find hobbies in which you are not paid for or in whixh there are no expectations of success or failure. I could have published this on another platform which could have paid me but then that becomes a Job to be done and not a passion.
Identify your stressors: This is acually the first thing you should be doing. Identifying your stressors upfront help you decide on which strategy for rest to adopt.
I hope this helps someone. Have you tried any of the strategies suggested? Do you know any other tips? Lets know in the comment section below. Also Subscribe to the newsletter to get more tips and notifications of newer posts.
