Day 15 - The healing power of rest

In Day 14, the focus was the healing power of having an active life, which is very important yet equal importance should be given to rest.

In the century of speed we forget about the importance of rest. Rest indeed comes after we have achieved, completed something but also during breaks in an on-going activity.

Rest and breaks are advised for both a healthy system as for a productive activity.

Yet, if we look around even at ourselves we see that we don’t know how to rest, how to relax and sometimes it even feels like we are afraid of relaxing. Feels like if we would relax even for 10 minutes something will be lost. In fact is the other way around.

Proper rest and relaxation helps to prevent disease, heart attack and stroke and ensures a good immune system. Also, keeping the focus on same types of situations/aspects/matters for extended hours invites errors and lack of good concentration. Concentrating on just the same points for a very long time, will cause losing the bigger picture. Good concentration is when you dissect a matter while still having the wider picture in mind.

How to get proper rest and relaxation? Here are a few simple tips and tricks.

Small relaxation breaks

1. Bring focus to breathing.

2. Try a simple breathing exercise. I recommend Exercise 2 or Exercise 3 when you feel very stressed/tensed. Also a quick Exercise 5 is good for balancing the hemispheres and broadening the perspective. These can be found in Day 2.

3. Watch the horizon or simply contemplate any view or just try to empty your mind.

4. Smell the flowers. Lavender flowers have a very relaxing smell. Water flowers.

5. Do a quick stretch or stroll around the room/office/house.

6. Once relaxed, you can do a quick breathing Exercise 6 from Day 2 to energize and return to your activity.

Good sleep

1. First of all make sure to strive for getting 8h of sleep.

2. Even if you sleep less, is better to have fewer hours of good sleep than more hours of stressed sleep (the sleep in which you turn from side to side and thoughts keep you awake).

3. The recipe for good sleep is very simple: MEDITATION (see Day 1) + BREATHING (see Day 2) + SLEEPING MUSIC (see Day 3).

Letting you on a little secret, sleep is one of my favorite activities.

Take breaks, relax, sleep well and keep healthy!