Sleep is Just One Part of Daily Rest
If you can actively rest at different times of the day, you’ll probably sleep well at night. The four types of rest include:
• Physical Rest: Sleep is one form of passive physical rest, but engaging in active forms of physical rest is also crucial. Techniques for active physical rest, including breathing exercises, timed naps, baths, and yoga poses.
• Mental Rest: While we need to rest the body, it’s equally important to learn to focus and concentrate the mind. Mental rest involves reconfiguring one’s mind to quickly and easily obtain a sense of relaxed control, such as self-hypnosis, relaxation, and visualization—designed to help maximize this process.
• Social Rest: Humans are hardwired to be extremely social—social connectedness is built into the structure of our brains. Studies show that people with strong social connections live longer, cope with stress better, and are healthier.
• Spiritual Rest: Certain spiritual practices can provide a profound sense of rest, inner peace, connection, and self-healing, and scientific studies have demonstrated that meditation can actually change the structure of the brain over time. Exercise meditation, prayer and contemplation that bring renewal and a sense of well-being.
As a specialized type of rest, sleep also helps renew the immune system, rebuild memory, enhance learning, prevent heart disease, and improve mood. The results of sleep are so exciting, you really want to follow the sleep rules – and make sleep fun.
Add a CommentComments
There are no comments yet. Be the first one and get the conversation started!