The 7 Types of Rest You Need
- Rodger Douglas
- 13 hours ago
- 5 min read
We often use the words sleep and rest interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. Rest is much broader and deeper than sleep.
Several years back, when I was a teacher, I took a month off for summer vacation. I had a relaxing time and slept really well so I felt physically refreshed. But a part of me was exhausted. Looking back, I realize that the quietness had given me time to contemplate my life. I was physically rested but emotionally and spiritually spent.
In Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity, Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith describes seven types of rest: physical, mental, sensory, emotional, social, creative and spiritual.
After reading her book I realized that there are two ways to look at rest. Firstly, ask what is making you tired? Perhaps you are drained from overthinking or long hours of work? Secondly, ask yourself what are you missing? Perhaps you need physical affection, creative nourishment, or a spiritual goal?
Understanding the 7 Types of Rest
1. Physical Rest
If you haven't slept enough, you need sleep more. If you've spent the entire day on your feet, sitting down will feel wonderful. If you've exercised intensely, your muscles need time to recover.
This is the type of rest most of my patients see me for. I found that what works best here is a healthy lifestyle practices. Sometimes simple solutions a comfortable bed, a regular sleep routine.
2. Mental Rest
Mental tiredness occurs when the mind is still ticking over.
Did I answer that email? What shall I make tomorrow? I need to call my mother. Why did she say that? Don't forget Thursday's appointment…
Mental rest doesn't necessarily mean forcing ourselves to stop thinking. Trying to make the mind blank can become another task.
It may be more helpful to stop continually asking the mind to solve, remember and organize.
3. Sensory Rest
Modern life gives our senses very little time off. Screens glow. Phones vibrate. Music plays in shops. Cars pass outside. Messages appear. Advertisements compete for our attention. Television may be playing while we simultaneously scroll through another screen.
Sensory rest means reducing what is coming in. Dim the lights. Turn off the television. Put the phone somewhere else. Close your eyes. Eat without watching something. Sit in silence for a few minutes.
4. Emotional Rest
From 2007 to 2016, Peter Funch, a Danish photographer repeatedly positioned himself outside Grand Central Terminal in new York, photographing commuters during roughly the same one-hour period each morning. He later went through the enormous collection and discovered that he had photographed the same people again and again, sometimes years apart.
What makes the series extraordinary is the repetition. A person might appear years later:
wearing essentially the same style of clothing
carrying a coffee in the same hand
smoking in the same way
touching their face in the same manner
walking with the same posture
and, most strikingly, displaying almost exactly the same emotional expression
Funch deliberately paired these photographs. Some look as though they were taken seconds apart, when in fact years separate them.
Looking at those paired photographs can feel almost unsettling: years have passed, but internally the person seems to be having the same morning. The same hurriedness, preoccupation, irritation, inwardness, coffee, bag, posture.
Emotional rest has two sides.Reduce what is exhausting you: the constant suppression, performance or management of emotion. Receive what has been missing: acceptance, privacy, understanding, compassion and permission to feel what you actually feel.
5. Social Rest
Social rest also has these two sides. Have you ever met a person
Some relationships require a great deal from us. We listen, accommodate, reassure, explain, stay cheerful, care for others and remain available.
Social rest may therefore mean fewer obligations, better boundaries, saying no occasionally, not answering every message immediately or simply spending some time alone.
A useful question is:
Which relationships or social roles leave me depleted?
But social rest does not necessarily mean withdrawing from people.
Sometimes the problem is the opposite. We may have plenty of human contact but very little restorative connection.
We may need someone with whom we can laugh, sit silently, speak honestly or simply be ourselves without managing their reactions.
So social rest can mean:
Less of the relationships that require constant effort, and more of the relationships in which we can relax.
Sometimes solitude is restorative. Sometimes companionship is.
6. Creative Rest
Creative rest is perhaps better understood as creative replenishment.
It doesn't necessarily mean that you've been too creative and need to stop creating. Rather, the imagination can become undernourished when life consists almost entirely of functional activities.
Work. Shopping. Cooking. Emails. Cleaning. Appointments. Screens. Repeat.
Everything has a purpose. Everything asks something from us.
Creative rest allows us to receive beauty, wonder and inspiration without needing to make them useful.
Walk through a garden. Listen to music without doing anything else. Arrange flowers. Visit an art gallery. Watch clouds move across the sky. Notice the first blossoms of spring or the changing leaves in autumn.
There is something wonderfully restorative about suddenly stopping because a sunset is beautiful.
For a moment the mind moves away from:
What do I need to do next?
toward:
Look at that.
Creative rest is allowing beauty and wonder to come in.
7. Spiritual Rest
Spiritual rest concerns meaning, belonging and connection. Life can gradually become entirely functional:
Get up. Work. Shop. Cook. Clean. Sleep. Repeat.
Nothing may be dramatically wrong, yet something feels absent. Spiritual rest asks larger questions:
What matters to me? What gives my life meaning? Where do I feel connected? What makes me feel quietly alive?
For one person the answer may involve prayer. For another it may be meditation, volunteering, community, nature, contemplation or sitting beside the sea.
How Heilkunst Can Support the 7 Types of Rest
One reason I find the 7 types of rest so useful is that they reflect something central to Heilkunst: tiredness is not always one problem with one solution. One person may need better sleep while other may be exhausted by constant thinking or sensory overload.
Depending on what is contributing to your difficulty resting, we may explore sleep habits, nutrition, movement, stress, emotional patterns, lifestyle, mindfulness, counseling, flower essences or individualized homeopathic treatment.
If you are struggling with poor sleep, a busy mind or persistent exhaustion, you are welcome to book a free consultation with me. We can talk about what is happening and whether my approach may be a good fit for you.
Comments