Rest To Lead At Your Best

If you don't take care of yourself, how can you take care of others?

Photo by Alejandro Piñero Amerio on Unsplash

The Context:

While working at my previous company, I remember having several conversations with my manager about rest.

She spoke to me about how tired she was of binge-watching Netflix and zoning out on weeknights and weekends just to go back to work still feeling drained. This idea was very impactful for me because I was it made me realize that I was struggling with the same issue! I spent most of my downtime binge-watching TV shows, playing video games, or sitting on the couch mindlessly scrolling through various other forms of media. My only thought when I entered these states was to do something that didn't require a lot of mental energy because I was tired of using my brain from all of the other work that I was doing during the week. Unfortunately, this didn't make me feel recharged. Even when I went on vacations, I would often times come back to work feeling like I needed a vacation from my vacation. My manager (then COO of our company) started building my awareness around how I spend my relaxation time such that I actually felt relaxed when I was done, and therefore was setting myself up to be even more effective when it was time to get to work.

But if rest didn't involve giving my mind a break from “thinking”, and it didn't involve just escaping from my overwhelming situation, then what was it?

What actually is rest?

I am partial to the definition given by Jordana Harshman, wellness manager, and certified wellness coach at Stanford Children’s Health in Harvard News article, How to recharge: Tips from a Stanford Wellness Coach. She states that rest (or relaxation) is:

“giving your mind and body a break to restore your energy, support your cognitive function and regulate your mood.”

As obvious as this may seem, I love this definition because it emphasizes that if what we do to rest does not result in us feeling more energized, cognitively capable, and emotionally regulated, then it isn't rest.

So what is it then? Honestly, it's a waste of time! If we aren’t engaging in work that requires energy, then why shouldn’t we be resting and restoring our energy?

How do we rest?

There are countless articles on the internet that give advice about different practices that we can use to rest effectively; these are great guidelines, and should only be viewed as such. What works well for you depends very much on your personal preferences, the time that you have available, and maybe even the phase of your life. Right now, my favorite restful practice is sitting down with a warm cup of mint tea. Even just two minutes of this makes me feel rejuvenated enough to focus for another hour on what I have to do. That being said, I occasionally meditate and go for brief walks. Naps are traps for me, so I avoid them completely, but maybe they will work for you!

Try one or two practices and see what resonates with you, but also pay attention to the things that you may already be doing that make you feel relaxed. Whatever it happens to be, make it a more regular practice, and you’ll be amazed at the change in your life.

What’s next?

Now that we know what rest is and how we can get it, we need to be able to identify when we need rest, and, in the best case scenarios, plan it in to our lives at regular intervals to keep ourselves in the best state to develop as leaders! Stay tuned for the next post where I will break down a tool to help us do just that!