How can you practice mindfulness to get quality rest?
First and foremost: take a break!
You’ve been working so hard and for so long. There comes a time when you’re not just physically tired, but also mentally tired. That type of deep exhaustion is not always remedied by sleep alone.
Besides addressing the bone-deep fatigue you feel, taking regular, mindful breaks will bring balance and joy into your life.
In this article, we’ll go over what happens in the brain when you take time for yourself and how to practice mindfulness to get quality rest.
Why should you take a break?
If you’re anything like me, you could spend all day absorbed in your computer. In fact, you do! Then, when you shut it down, your mind remains in your work and begins planning your next steps.
The problem with this is that being constantly absorbed in work is an open invitation for burnout.
There is space in your life for things other than your work. Taking a physical and mental break from your day to day will:
- Help you find work-life balance
- Improve your productivity at work
- Re-energize, reinvigorate and motivate you
All of the things you strive for and more.
Let’s take a closer look at this because each of these points is related, as everything in life seems to be.
Let’s start with finding work-life balance.
Taking time away from work will inevitably give you time for personal things.
If you’re not spending all your time working, you are most likely spending your time in these 4 general areas — with family, friends, doing self-care activities or working toward personal goals and hobbies.
Each of these activities plays a hand in activating the 4 happiness chemicals that your brain releases to make you feel good.
- Dopamine is the reward chemical that will activate and enforce small wins, self-care, eating and completing tasks.
- Oxytocin is the love hormone and will reward you when you play with animals, babies, spend time with family, give compliments, hold hands, etc.
- Serotonin is your mood stabilizer and this chemical becomes active when meditating, exercising, sunbathing, and being in nature.
- Finally, there are endorphins or pain killers. Your brain releases endorphins when you laugh, enjoy aromatherapy, exercise and also while indulging in dark chocolate.
As you can see, while work is an essential part of life, it only activates dopamine, the other 3 of the body’s feel good chemicals come from self-care and socializing.
How can you practice mindfulness to improve productivity?
Let’s take a step back from chemistry. Getting your mind off of work and that project that you’ve been working on for days will give you a fresh perspective going back to work.
Personally, when I start working on something, I don’t like to stop until I’m done. Now, while this is a great way to ensure that things aren’t left hanging, there’s a limit. While working on larger projects, taking mindful breaks enables me to step back and see the bigger picture.
Somehow, after spending time outside, soaking in some rays and watching butterflies, coming back to my computer is a treat — another opportunity to work on what I love.
Usually when you’re stuck, the answer is right in front of you, but you’re so caught up in another facet of the project that you can’t step back and see the whole picture.
Taking time for yourself will re-energize, reinvigorate and motivate you, giving you fresh energy to approach your work with enthusiasm.
So here’s the million dollar question:
How do you get quality rest?
Every five days of work, you get two days to yourself to rest and relax. So why is it that you still feel tired come Monday morning? Why has your down time not done its job to energize you?
Quality rest can only happen when your mind settles down. This means that if you’re sitting with your friends or family and your mind is absorbed in something else, not only are you doing them a disservice, you’re doing yourself a disservice. You aren’t giving them the love and attention they give you nor are you giving yourself the rest that you need and the time to refresh.
This is the essence of why you should practice mindfulness.
You can be doing anything during your day but if your mind is elsewhere, what have you truly achieved?
Do you remember what that meal tasted like?
What about what your loved ones were talking about?
Do you remember where your mind was at the time?
No to everything.
Multitasking used to be the latest and greatest way to increase productivity, in reality, it reduces the quality of everything that you do.
So here are your 7 ways to practice mindfulness, bring your mind back to centre, and get the rest that you need so badly.
- Minimize screen time
- Yes. This is important. You love screen time because it gives you an excuse to detach yourself from the present moment. When you scroll down that endless feed, your mind takes off. This is why you scroll for so long. After some point, you aren’t even aware of it. So put away your phone and give yourself 100% to your tea, to your flatmates, to yourself.
- Meditate
- This is the number one way to sit and observe your mind. There are a ton of benefits that I’m not going to list but I will say that the purpose of meditation is exactly this — to be present.
- Start with guided meditations! They’ll help you keep your mind in check.
- Do things for no reason
- Spontaneity ensures that you’re not caught up in planning all the time. How often have you been unable to decide what to do, where to go, what to eat? You spend forever looking at your phone slowly getting more and more agitated and then you end up doing nothing. Or you spend the bulk of your time researching “the best thing to do” that by the time you come to a decision, you’re tired or you’ve missed the best part of the day.
- So skip all this and let your day flow.
- Spend time with animals and babies
- It’s really hard to not pay attention to these little guys. They’re energetic, playful, and downright adorable. As a bonus, you’ll be rewarded generously by a dose of oxytocin, leaving you feeling happy and grateful.
- Cook / Bake
- Cooking and baking is for everyone. They are experiments that we can all undertake. Not only that, while in the kitchen, there is no time for daydreaming or letting the mind wander. If you want to eat a delicious meal or pastry, get a print version of your recipe and start cooking up a storm.
- Bring your attention back to your breath
- This is something that you can do throughout any and all activities. The breath is always present. You are not breathing for yesterday or tomorrow. You are breathing NOW. So bringing your mind to your breath, brings you back to the present moment.
- How do you remember to bring yourself back to your breath? Assign a trigger. Whether that’s your watch beeping the hour, before every meal or upon opening an email. Choose a trigger that you will inevitably do every day and use that as a reminder to take a long, deep breath in and slowly let it go.
- Start a regular yoga practice
- Yoga is deeply tied to spirituality and is designed to help you reconnect with yourself. A yoga practice blends movement, breath and meditation to bring you effortlessly back to the present moment.
And there are your 7 extremely actionable tips to practice mindfulness and get the rest that you need to consistently function at the top of your game.
Taking that break that you need so, so badly will show up in all areas of your life. You will find a happy work-life balance, deepen your connections with your loved ones and be more productive at work.
So what are you waiting for?
