Wake up, make breakfast, work, go home, cook dinner, do laundry, sleep and repeat.
During the third month of my four-month poly internship, I began to ask myself, “Am I just living the same day over and over? What is the point of all that?”
Work just looked meaningless and the things I once enjoyed started to become a chore. I was just tired of life.
It was at the peak of all this dread, that I came to realise soon after that life is not just about our responsibility to work and survive, it is about the responsibility to rest as well.
We can try our best to constantly drive forward, but we all know that we need fuel to do just that and so we cannot continue going on without recharging ourselves.
Working is tiring and sometimes mundane, life cannot be exciting all the time. We are often burnt out when we do not reach a balance of work and rest and being burnt out is contrary to the work we want to accomplish.
So as much as we view rest as not working, rest is essential to work. If you are feeling burnt out right now in your internship or even in school, maybe this is the reminder you needed to remember to rest.
Rest includes sleep, but it also comes in different forms. We don’t just need physical rest, we need to rest in other aspects of our lives as well.
I have broken down how I rest into four broad categories: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. Having these rests can make sure that we are fully energised to face whatever menial or even daunting task ahead of us.
1) MENTAL REST
We all probably use our mental strength a lot in our everyday lives, using our brains to make and process all the decisions we are faced with. Our ability to think is definitely something we all treasure and so mental rest is extremely important to us all.
When I was working as an intern, I would take a break in between long working hours, just to go to the bathroom or even to get a cup of coffee. Standing up and resting from constant concentration helped me clear my mind. It made sure I was able to focus on the problems I was stuck in and it helped me process my situation better.
Having the space to clear our minds can really help us untangle the sometimes messy state we are in mentally.
Additionally, during some weeknights, I opt to do something creative. Things that get me thinking, but not about work, like reading or sketching. Doing something stimulating out of work helps us keep a balanced mental well-being as well.
2) PHYSICAL REST
This one is relatively simple to explain, yet it is the one rest we will probably readily forego. Physical rest directly affects us, many of us can relate to the times we lacked sleep and hence stopped focusing in school. We need physical rest.
I will be the first to admit that I do not prioritise physical rest, but on days where I made a point to sleep at least 7 hours, I found myself more ready to start my day than ever. Sleep is the one rest we all require, we just have to set aside time to sleep.
On top of sleep, resting our senses like eyes and ears does reap benefits too. Sometimes walking the long way home without my phone on or just jogging with headphones off helps me disconnect from the hustle and bustle of life and keeps me grounded.
3) EMOTIONAL REST
Everyone’s emotional needs can vary tremendously, some people need more support than others and some may need more rest. Resting emotionally can also be very different depending on what works for us personally. All in all, we just need to be aware of how we are doing emotionally.
Are we affected easily by what happens around us? Are we stressed or anxious more often than usual? There are ways to know we are not in a good emotional state. What to do really depends on what energises us.
Some of us will need friends to talk to. Others need alone time. Some need a bit of both. All of us just need to process how we are feeling and that requires taking time off the busyness of life to really understand how we feel at that moment and why.
We need emotional rest because we are human. Humans have feelings and we need to deal with them.
4) SPIRITUAL REST
Spiritual rest will mean different things to different people but it essentially boils down to what gives us a sense of purpose.
I think it is important to know, sometimes, that we are not in control, that we can only do what we can in this world and so spiritual rest does that.
It helps us pause to think of ourselves in the perspective of a bigger world and that can be just what we need. Maybe if we still do not find rest in the other forms, a sense of purpose can help us find that rest.
I hope that from the different forms of rest, it is clear that our lives do not just rely on sleep. We are multi-faceted beings and our health depends on more than just the physical aspect.
Resting is the opposite of work, yet to have a balance of rest and work really makes a difference in how effective we are at work.
There are times when I lose sight of certain rests and fall into despair, yet all that I needed to do was realise that in times of burnout or crisis, I just need to find that balance of work and rest again.
Work does not need to seem like an endless toil but one with purpose and growth. We just have to remember to rest.
