Tag Archives: Adequate rest

Are You Enjoying the Ride?

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For the past week, it’s felt as if the current of the river I’ve been paddling down has sped up and there have been some rocks and rapids to navigate. It’s been an exhilarating ride, and doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down any time soon.

In the past, I totally would’ve gotten stressed out by such a fast-moving current—and I’ll admit to having a few moments of overwhelm—but the opportunity has been to Be Present, and for the most part, I’ve done that pretty well. (Yeah me!)

Most of us think that staying balanced means maintaining our life in equal parts—this amount of time and energy devoted to work, this amount devoted to family, this amount devoted to fun and me time, etc. True balance, however, comes from within. There is no way to control the external factors of life, so we must find a way to be balanced moment-to-moment.

When life speeds up or you hit some rapids—or even run into some rocks—focusing on being in balance internally will help you enjoy the ride rather than have you holding on for dear life.

One of the best ways to do that is to focus on right now. Don’t look at the past or future, but Be Present. Life feels calmer in the moment. There is only what you can do right now—not the overwhelming specter of everything you have to do, or how things have turned out in the past.

Right now, you have the power to choose your response, and if you are not responding as you wish, you have the power to make another choice. Right now you can breathe.

Another way to find balance is to ensure that your self-care is your highest priority so that you’re able to stay in the moment and respond instead of react. This doesn’t mean that your actions won’t have to shift with the situation—you may have to decide between your workout and adequate rest for instance, or you may choose a more nurturing workout, such as yoga over running. Paying attention to your self-care no matter what’s going on ensures that your body and mind have support to help you thrive in the moment.

It’s much easier to stay in the moment and implement self-care during the fast-flowing experiences of life if it is something you practice all the time.

What can you do today to stay present and practice self-care? What difference does that make in how much you enjoy the ride? How does that improve the quality of your life?

Together we can do it!

 

Photo from www.freedigitalphotos.net

 

Are You Getting Adequate Rest?

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Getting adequate rest is vitally important to being able to maintain physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual energy. Do you ever feel so tired you have to force yourself to stay awake? Do small problems sometimes elicit big emotional reactions? Do you get things done through sheer willpower even though you’re exhausted?

You may not be getting adequate rest.

I certainly saw a huge leap in my ability to react appropriately, get things done, achieve physical goals, and see situations more clearly when I made getting adequate rest a priority and worked my life around that. And I see those things deteriorate if I don’t consistently follow my self-prescribed guidelines for getting enough sleep.

What I also noticed, however, was that getting tied to a specific number of hours of sleep or type of rest created limiting beliefs about what I could and could not do. If I didn’t get that magic number of hours of sleep one night, I would expect to feel bad and struggle the next day. And so I would.

But did it have to be that way?

One day I asked myself if getting that certain number of hours of sleep every night was a Universal Truth, meaning it is True no matter who, no matter what? I recognized that it wasn’t. I could actually point to several high-functioning people who consistently got less sleep and did just fine.

This meant that a certain number of hours was then generally true for me. Those magic hours were still the goal I wanted to shoot for, but that if for some reason I didn’t get those hours it didn’t automatically mean that my day would be an energetic struggle. In other words, I could occasionally get less sleep and still have a great day.

So I began changing my thoughts about sleep. If I naturally woke up in the middle of the night, I asked myself what I wanted to do. Did I want to get up and accomplish something? Relax and meditate? Ponder what I would consider the perfect solution to a situation? Or just bask in appreciation of my life and the world?

And occasionally things come up in the evening that mean I don’t make my bedtime, and sometimes, I just make a different choice.

In all of these situations I give myself permission to do what feels right and still get up and feel vibrant, alive, and eager the next day.

I still strive to consistently get that magic number of hours of sleep every night, but my goal now is to get adequate rest—whatever that looks like on any given night. And I can monitor my energy levels to let me know if I’m tilting toward needing more sleep.

What does adequate rest mean for you? How does getting adequate rest impact your energy levels? Where might you be creating limiting beliefs about the amount of sleep you are or are not getting? How does getting adequate rest impact the quality of your life?

Together we can do it!

 

Wellness Tip of the Day

Aside

Wellness Tip of the Day: Adequate rest is important to having enough physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual energy. Adequate can change by day and person.