Are you tired? It’s a silly question, right? This is the episode that can change the quality of your life because this is for you if you are tired all the time.
We actually don't have a sophisticated language around our exhaustion. But this week's guest, Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, wrote the book, Sacred Rest, where she outlines the 7 different types of rest, which you will hear about today. This is a book about honoring rest in a society that values productivity as a way to express your worth.
We also go into why we experience Zoom fatigue which is one type of “tired” as well as why our brain doesn’t always shut off when our heads are on our pillow and we're just thinking about that challenge or that tough conversation of the day. Then there is social rest. Interestingly, there are some people that pour into us, and then there are also some people that pull from us. Dr. Dalton-Smith also shares a quiz you can take to uncover what kind of rest you may need more of in your life.
You will also hear about my 5 secrets to goal-achieving free workshop where you will have an opportunity to hear about the mindset and strategy I implement to achieve big goals that actually matter to my happiness, joy, and fulfillment. Now, if you have big goals you want to achieve in 2022, I'm sharing the insights that have worked for me in terms of achieving really big goals, whether it's been relocating my family from the United States to Australia, earning two full scholarships to private institutions, or birthing my children on my own terms.
Get ready to uncover the insights that have worked for me and that I have taught my clients. And so, if you have big goals that you want to achieve and goals that really matter to you, then you are going to have a good sense of the five things you'll want to incorporate in your plan, if you have a plan. Sign-up for the recording today: www.melissallarena.com/goals it will be available for two-weeks only. Be ready to rethink what’s possible in your next chapter.
About this week’s guest
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith is a Board-Certified internal medicine physician, speaker, and award-winning author. She is an international well-being thought-leader featured in numerous media outlets including Prevention, MSNBC, Women’s Day, FOX, Fast Company, Psychology Today, INC, CNN Health, and TED.com. She is the author of numerous books including her bestseller Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity, including insight on the seven types of rest needed to optimize your productivity, increase your overall happiness, overcome burnout, and live your best life. Over 250,000 people have discovered their personal rest deficits using her free assessment at RestQuiz.com.
Share this with a friend for whom you would have to make her rest sacred and part of her daily habit.
Highlights
Courage: It takes courage to understand where you are so that you can better understand the particular rest that you need and then to honor this place. You also get to see who is pouring into you or pulling from you
Creativity: There is also a need for creative rest. This is the kind of rest we experience when we allow ourselves to appreciate beauty in whatever form. By the consumption of that beauty, it awakens that inspiration inside of you and it awakens your own creativity.
Curiosity: Seek significant information. Be very specific in defining what's tired. Are you tired of dealing with other people? Are you tired of having to think? Are you tired of having to remember stuff? Or is your body achy?
Signs: What are the signs and symptoms of the kind of tired you are experiencing? If you can start narrowing down what the signs and symptoms of that are, you're going to be more likely to come up with a solution that's going to help that problem.
Emotional rest: Very often we are masking our emotions or trying to keep them under tabs. We can just keep acting as if things don't affect us, and we're carrying a lot of emotional labor. Therefore, we have allow ourselves to be very real, open and authentic about what we are feeling.
Honor: Just the ability to be authentic, and expressing those emotions begins that restful process. You can do it on a journal and honor where you’re at.
Acceptance: At the very core of rest is a restorative process. How do we make it better than where it's at? But there has to be that recognizing where you're at and evaluating your current state without any judgment.
Burnout: The toxicity of that emotional labor will become so heavy that it starts feeling debilitating.
Rest: The 7 types of rest include physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, social, sensory, and creative.
Social rest: Social rest looks at our relationships. Are they pulling from us or are they pouring back into us? Take a look at the people in our lives that are actively pouring back into us that are life-giving. Make sure some of your relationships are pouring back into you.
Physical rest: This involves dealing with the physical body such as passive things like sleeping and napping, as well as active physical rest like massage therapy, or using a foam roller or going for a leisure walk.
Spiritual rest: If you're a person of faith, that could be your relationship with God. If you don't have a faith based system, that could look like communities you're in.
Mental rest: If you are struggling with clearing your mind, you could have a mental rest deficit. You need to learn how to focus again and clear that mental clutter.
Sensory rest: Most of us have a lot of sensory input we're not even aware of (the lights, the sounds, the smells around the place that you work, and that you spend most of your day). You have to be aware of the sensory inputs in your environment as well as how you are responding to them if they're actually affecting your overall personality.
Zoom fatigue: The number one rest deficit used to be mental rest. But during the pandemic, there was an increase in the number of virtual meetings. Every little screen has his own little visual input that you're analyzing, which you normally would not even think about.
Stress: There's an extra stress that comes with Zoom meetings because you lose the power of presence and you lose the ability to evaluate that the way you normally would if you gave that same presentation in the room.
Evaluate: If you are feeling like some part of you is not at its optimal best, then you need to evaluate that and then to make some decisions on how to improve that.
Sleep: There's a place when things like a prescription drug or a glass of wine are needed but you don't like them to become your normal. Sleep isn't the only type of rest. However, rest is often the pathway to good sleep.
Sleep cycle: There are multiple stages of sleep. Stage 1 is the non-REM sleep. The restorative aspect of sleep is Stage 3 where you're soundly asleep.
Deep sleep: As long as your brain keeps rehashing the same thought, it will keep you from actually going into those deeper levels of sleep. Have some strategies in place for how you're going to help the brain release it including mindfulness and the brain dump.
Stillness: It's when you allow yourself to honor rest. We put more value in the busy and in the doing and the movement. We have gotten to a place where we don't honor our need to just be still.
Links to continue to learn from:
Website: http://drdaltonsmith.com/ Instagram: @DrDaltonSmith Twitter: @DrDaltonSmith Facebook: Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith Rest Quiz Test: https://www.restquiz.com/quiz/rest-quiz-test/Want to grab your free copy of the Courage Makerspace (™) Playbook?
Download the Courage Makerspace(™) here www.melissallarena.com/courage
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Figure out what makes you tick Be more accountable and not procrastinate Overcome imposter syndrome Stop caring about what others think Progress despite self-doubt Manage anxiety Ask for helpYou will have a step-by-step playbook to help you finally fulfill your life purpose! Do not miss out on this free opportunity as it will not be available for long.
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