Before reading, raise your shoulders, let them go, take a deep breath and exhale slowly. You just spent less than a minute on your body. And how many such minutes do you have per day? Usually people don't count. We are used to counting the hours dedicated to work: using trackers, planners, timers. Rest becomes "leftovers" of time that work did not have time to "eat".
In modern culture, only fatigue is planned. Today we have as a guest Nastya Vyshnya , methodologist and founder of the nescience educational ecosystem . Through her knowledge of the brain, Nastya helps you understand yourself, and today she will help us build a relaxation system that will be applicable to your life.
Why is the lack of recreation culture a problem?
The lack of a rest culture is a problem as people begin to accept fatigue as the norm and exhaustion as part of normal life. Without rest, we not only deteriorate our physical and mental health, but also risk losing touch with our own needs, and the risk of chronic diseases, emotional breakdowns and depressive states increases!
Therefore, it is important to build a recreation system that will correspond to your lifestyle, needs, interests and take into account physiological features. For example, men and women recover differently.
For men, there is less sad news, it is easier for them to recover and they have predicted amounts of energy for the day, so quality sleep, communication with friends, nutrition and sports will already start the machine in the morning.
There is more sad news for women , because the energy level is unstable due to an unstable hormonal cycle (which forms the resource). Therefore, women's rest requires more time , greater quality and different proportions depending on the period of the month.
How to plan a vacation?
As soon as we notice the strain, we can plan for recovery—picking up our Tetris of rest to fill in the gaps.
Stages of planning quality rest
- We determine what is more/less tired — the body, the mind, or our emotions (amygdala, limbic system) .
- Restoring a tired body should include the following components:
- sleep (without it, everything (even hormones) will suffer);
- physical relaxation (relieve tension from the body by stretching muscles, breathing practices);
- massage (both with an MRF roll and by a masseur);
- food without sweet and fatty foods (such food will increase the feeling of fatigue);
- cognitive load (when the body is tired, but not exhausted, let the brain switch its focus to a book, a documentary or a lecture);
- time in silence , without blaming yourself for lack of productivity.
- Emotional fatigue is more complex, our brain is in a fight-and-run state. The hippocampus (which is memory), the prefrontal cortex (concentration, discipline, creativity), and the limbic system (emotional regulation) suffer.
In our menu here:
- remove alcohol (will increase anxiety and exhaustion);
- temporary minimization of stress factors (everything that annoys);
- to smile more (the muscles of this action are connected to the activation of processes in the brain that are responsible for happiness, the Harvard course on happiness is here to help you );
- breathing practices (to get your parasympathetic nervous system in order, which is responsible for relaxation);
- name 5-10 positive things around (focus on the real and good);
- blow soap bubbles (this is also breathing practice, but very cool).
- Cognitive fatigue is the most difficult type of burnout because it affects all aspects of life, impairing the ability to focus, make decisions, and think creatively.
The reasons are oversinking (worrying thoughts that imperceptibly take away the day's supply of cognitive abilities), zooms, meetings, chats, correspondence (load on the cognitive system from too much communication), too much information (social networks, TV series, news).
What we do:
- mindfulness practice (aware processes of breathing, walking, sports, in order to move from the anxious future to the present, where there is control);
- nature (really acts on recovery);
- favorite music (but if it is depressing or sad, most likely the effect will be the opposite);
- reading (6 minutes and the stress level is already starting to decrease);
- to be with oneself in silence for 30-60 minutes without distraction by gadgets (it can be a walk, drawing, assembling puzzles, cooking, but without background content that makes the brain tired).
When to rest?
One of the researchers from Harvard said this: "the break you need to distract yourself from fixing on an ineffective solution . " Choose to look out the window, read, take a walk on the terrace.
Short breaks: take a 5-10 minute break every hour to stretch your body and rest your eyes.
Long Breaks : Schedule 15-30 minute breaks during long hours of work to refresh your mind and body.
The main rest is evening and night sleep . Don't forget to plan a weekend for full recovery.
"I don't have time to rest"
Often this is what we tell ourselves, putting off the time to recover for later, when everything is done or there is a free moment. However, this does not happen later, and we increasingly lose the balance between affairs and internal resources!
Still think it's too much trouble to add a 30-minute break in the middle of your workday? And if you don't rest? Constant fatigue and stress also have a cumulative effect — from irritability and reduced concentration to serious health problems and depression.
Remember: rest is an equally important part of your efforts to achieve your goals! You can run 3 km without rest and additional resources, but not 200 km.
If you have big plans, plan a quality vacation. Rest is not stuck on tape, but an honest dialogue with yourself.
