In last week’s question, How Do You Manage to Want to Keep Learning?, my last option was to sleep on the learning to reinforce what we learned. So an eagle-eyed reader asked this question: How do you force yourself to take that rest? (No one can continue to burn the candle at both ends—that’s not sustainable.)
Excellent question!
There are several kinds of rests:
- Rest in the small, where we take breaks during the day or several times a week. I’ve been focused on increasing my stamina, so yes, I sometimes take a nap during the day. (A significant benefit of working from home.)
- Rest in the medium, where we might take a brief rest from electronics or a break from social media. Many religious people take a weekly Sabbath day as a day away from anything electronic. I’ve been taking social media breaks—some longer than others.
- Finally, a rest in the large, where we take a much longer rest from something significant in our lives. It might even be a total break. For example, I no longer participate in several social media sites. That’s one of my permanent breaks. You might choose a retirement break from traditional work to choose to do something new.
I like to think about these various rests as helping me discover and then maintain my sustainable pace. That’s how I can maintain my health. That health helps us build resilience in both the short and long terms.
However, too many of us ignore the signals that say we need a rest.
Seeing Signals We Need a Rest
I feel both physical and emotional signals that I need a rest.
Because of my vertigo (oscillopsia), I walk a fine line between doing enough exercise to build stamina and strength and overdoing it. If I overdo my physical exercise, I literally feel unsteady in my head. That unsteadiness makes me realize I need a rest. In a sense, I’m lucky that I feel that signal before I can overdo too much.
But emotional unsteadiness feels different to me. That unsteadiness means I’m not reacting inside of my “normal” emotional ups and downs. Instead, I spiral down into a doom loop of rage, despair, and excessive sadness.
Your signals are probably different, but reinforcing doom is almost always a signal that we need a break, a rest. Then, it’s a question of how long a break do we need?
The Intensity of the Signal Might Define the Rest Duration
I wish I could tell you I was perfect and could see that first intense signal. I recently returned from a few weeks in Florida, escaping the Boston cold. While my time there was terrific, I got overtired from insufficient night-time sleep and a lot of intentional physical activity. While there, I took at least one nap a day, sometimes two.
Smart people might recognize this and say, “Hmm, when you get home, make sure to sleep enough.” No. I was not that smart. (Insert maniacal laughter.) My need for naps has not yet decreased as I recover from my trip. I’ve taken naps almost every day this week.
I’m taking a medium-sized break from certain conservative outlets. In the past, I read these newspapers to understand their perspectives. However, I do not see perspectives right now, although I do see blind loyalty. I will not read them again until they move from blind loyalty to reasoning about their perspectives.
There are other times when I see the intensity of the various signals right away. I stopped participating on Twitter and deleted my account because I do not support Nazis. I also do not support some audio apps, such as Spotify and Audible, because of how they pay the content creators. There are other media I do not support because they create a paywall that does not offer sufficient money to creators.
I don’t just get angry—I remove my support from their sites and apps. Those are my permanent breaks.
Resilience requires we consider how long a rest we need from which circumstances.
Resilience is Personal
Because resilience requires physical and emotional health, it has to be personal to each of us. While I require more physical rest than many people, I might not require the same emotional rest or breaks as you do.
We each need to pay attention to the various signals we see and feel. What signals do you feel and when? Does it make sense to take a short, medium, or long-term break or rest?
Whatever signals you see and feel know this: We all need some form of sustainable pace. Sure, we can increase intensity for a short while. But we will then see and feel signals that tell us it’s time for a rest. Those various rests help us develop more resilience. And resilience allows each of us to take on new and/or more challenges.