Life is full, and we are BUSY! There is nothing greater than the feeling of being in the zone — making progress and getting things done. Your workouts are great. Your to-do list is being attacked. You feel unstoppable. Just admit it — you don't want to take the time to slow down.
It might sound crazy, but when you’re “in the zone” and feeling great, this is the best time to take a break. Sometimes the smartest and most powerful thing you can do is embrace the opportunity to step away, breathe, relax, and give your body and mind a bit of recovery. This may be something as simple as a 5-10 minute breath of fresh air outside, or it may be a day of unplugging, unwinding, and tuning out. It is essential for each of us to find the right balance of work and rest/recovery in our daily lives.
How Will I Know?
Rest and recovery are integral to your progress in any area of your life. They are critical to promote energy, mood and happiness. By prioritizing your rest and recovery time, you are prioritizing your productivity and progress. How do you know when you need to rest? If you’ve gotten to the point where you NEED the rest, your body and mind are usually screaming out with some very obvious signs. Once you are feeling these things, your body and mind are already NOT working at the most optimal level:
Feeling irritable and sluggish
Tired all the time
Poor sleep patterns
Injuries that won’t improve
Feeling like you’re always “behind”
Frustration
Low productivity
Low motivation
When Resting Doesn’t Mean Sleeping
We typically think rest means sleep — and sometimes it does. Sleep is the natural process your body needs to recharge. But rest is so much more than sleep. Non-sleeping rest allows your body to recover, restore energy, and calm your mind — which will also result in better sleep at night and higher performance when you are awake. There are many things you can do to give yourself the chance to rest:
Listen to your body
Tune out stress
Unplug
Breathe
Spend some time alone
Take a break from responsibility
Get away
Delegate to others
Rest is very productive and you deserve the downtime. Regular periods of rest will help prevent burnout. Get rid of the idea that you constantly have to be working and grinding to get ahead and be successful. We are conditioned to think that rest and recovery are a reward. This mindset must be shifted to realize that rest and recovery are essential to achieve high performance and productivity. When you make the time to recharge, you will come back refreshed and motivated to take on the task in front of you — whether it’s a hard workout, or working on a deadline for your job, or deep cleaning your house — rather than struggling to surge ahead while feeling exhausted and unmotivated.
Save It Up
Schedule the rest time into your daily and weekly schedule to make sure it happens. Think of this rest time as your personal savings account. If you don’t budget your savings account, you could waste it all away. The same is true with rest. If you don’t schedule it into your day, it likely won’t happen. You will be depleting yourself day by day with nothing in the bank to keep you going at an optimal level.
I Did ALL of That!!!
If you just can’t allow yourself to take a break from your to-do list, then try looking at it from another perspective. Make yourself an “I did it” list. Write down all the things you did that day or that week, and you will surely see that you deserve a break! Commit to investing in your “rest and recovery savings account,” and MAKE IT HAPPEN!