6 ways to rest in 2022

6 ways to rest in 2022

Many of us haven’t had the time to ourselves during 2021 including myself. I’m constantly working long hours on my feet and using my brain. Working longer hours than usual taking up more work than I should all because of companies being understaffed after quarantine. At the end of the day I am overwhelmed. Honestly, my work got me overworking to the point that I couldn’t rest in peace when I tried to sleep. I am afraid to oversleep, when I meditate I feel like I should be working. The point is I was not allowing myself to rest properly no matter if it was my day off and feeling constantly tired. This is not something I want to take to 2022 with me. So, I decided to make a new years resolution targeting my rest and ways I could rest during weekdays and on my days off. The 2022 is a year that I will be prioritizing my selfcare whether it is physical rest, emotional rest, spiritual rest, creative rest, mental rest, social rest or just to make myself feel good like massages. Therefore, I have done my research and picked 7 ways that I can rest during 2022. Although this is researched I personalize it to myself, now I know it will not resonate with everyone however, there are things that can work for just me, so I am sharing my 7 ways to rest in 2022.

Sleep

While we know sleep is the main source of rest physically and most important one too, no sleep is not good for mental health or physical health. As sleep gives individuals energy that helps to keep on going during the day. What I will be doing during 2022 is to get enough sleep like 7-8 hours of sleep not 4-5 hours of sleep. To get 7-8 hours of sleep I need to get into a routine to create myself a nice sleeping pattern. For example, everyday I will go to bed at 23:00 pm and wake up at 07:00 am or 08:00 am. This will give me a pattern to follow and have the sleep I need also having the rest of the day to work and do what I need to do. I can be stable and consistent with my sleeping pattern meaning I can get more work done and gives me a reason not to sleep in everyday due to work. In addition, to me having a consistent sleeping pattern I will be getting the most sleep I need and sleep well throughout the night. It would mean that I will not oversleep or sleep in until I need to get to work and have enough energy to do my job.

Meditation

In 2022 I want to take care not only of my physical health which is very important, in addition to that I want to take care of myself spiritually. I am going to meditate daily to rest my body spiritually and to connect with my inner self, relieve stress, to have a peaceful mind and focus on myself. Meditation helps to rest your mind and body leaving you feeling refreshed, soI put this on my new year's resolution without even thinking. I did meditation for the past year but not consistently. Only when I was tired and could relax to get myself to sleep. However, in 2022 I tend to listen to meditation daily especially before bed to help me get to sleep after a stressful day and in the morning to start my day with a clear mindset. By meditating and listening to relaxing sounds it will drift my body and mind away from the stress by relaxing my mind and body whilst following the relaxing sound. It will keep me focused on here and now making me forget the stress I have gone through during the day. It will also reduce anxiety and other mental mind related situations like stress, overthinking and more.

Emotional rest

Emotional rest is all about connecting with myself emotionally asking questions like “how are you?” and answer truthfully, if not telling someone I am close with then writing the true answer on a question in a journal or diary. A diary that is only aimed at emotional health, writing down every emotion and feeling that I feel in depth. Being truthful to myself and my emotions and having emotional rest is important as it is a freedom to express my/your feelings no matter what those feelings are. A goal is to be emotionally stronger and thrive in difficult situations. I understand that it will not be possible all the time. As humans we all have mental breakdowns and my goal is to look at my life positively with strong emotions and focus on good things and by not neglecting my emotions reflect and improve. Giving myself time to understand my feelings that I am feeling at that moment. In addition, to rest emotionally I would spend time alone by going for walks. Emotional health can be created from the pressure of society too. I am not exactly the person to compare myself to others but there are times that thoughts like that come passing through. I tend to not focus on them. So, if that happens I would exercise, take time for myself, if needed go to therapy, it is not shameful to take care of your emotions and mental health. With emotional rest it has been said in other words STOP people pleasing!

Mental rest

Mental rest is very important for mental health, for individuals to perform better in their personal life and professional career life. For me it is important because it is something I need to work on especially during my time at work hence why it is part of my 2022 rest resolution. While I know breaks are important it is not very easy to do in my career, my plan is simple, I plan my breaks given to me. For example, on a 30 minute break during the shift I can have 15 minutes of food and 3 breaks that are 5 minutes for a breathing session. So, career wise is not much I can do other than plan my breaks wisely.

For my mental health personally, I would write as I love writing therefore it has to be on my list. I will be focusing on writing down what I think or overthink, what I feel every emotion and though I write on a paper or on my phone in detail. I'm not talking just a little detail I mean in depth detail. I write those things down and then make a list out of those things afterwards I cross out the things I cannot control and focus on what I can control. It helps my mental health and puts my mind at rest to not worry about situations that I can’t control and deal with what I can control.

Another exercise for my mental rest is to write a journal, it is kind of similar to my previous exercise but also different. This is about writing a journal to write things down how you feel, what happened, with a little gratitude section to show gratitude to myself on how I have dealt with my day and what I am grateful for. It is a way to tell my mind that it is ok you can rest now, you did what you can today. Leave the rest for tomorrow!

As part of my mental rest I plan to stay away from technology as it is one of the biggest steps I want to take in 2022. As we know social media is a toxic plane and my plan is to stay away from social media as much as I can. I want to have time, technology and social media free morning, no phone for the first hour that I wake up, during that first hour I could be doing things like meditation, yoga, getting ready for the day, writing my journal and more. In addition, during the day I will also have limited time on social media as being apart from it means I can do more work and don’t get distracted. The whole idea of mental rest for me is to give my brain rest by doing less stressful things and overthinking things, give my mentality rest from toxic things in life such as social media and toxic people.

Social rest

Sometimes, we surrender ourselves to different groups, some give us positive energy and some exhausts us like we have been working for 14 hours straight. My goal is to only be around people with positive energy so that I can rest socially and be happy at the end of the day and not exhausted. I know it may not be an ideal way to rest for many people, however, for me it is a goal in 2022 to have some more social rest. By social rest I mean going out with people I really care about like my family, friends and significant other. Social rest is a different type of rest however, it is all about surrounding myself with positive people that lift me up and make me happy and that bring the best out of me. In other words in 2022 I will only be cutting out toxic people out of my life and just be socially happy and socially resting with people that I fully feel happy and positive around.

Creative rest

My final resolution for 2022 is to have more creative rest. By creative rest I mean giving myself a break to relax creatively that includes going for walks, reading, drawing, surrounding myself with inspiration. By creative rest I mean that I need to get out more whether I go camping, hiking, beach walks, bike rides, go to art museums or any museum; overall spend more time in nature. Taking some time to be with myself in nature, by going on daily walks some long as some may be for 20 minutes. It would be better to just enjoy the nature/sun, kind of a way to clear my mind too. By that I mean give myself a chance to step away from creativity, constantly thinking and everything I am doing at least twice a week to just do nothing and rest my mind. It kind of comes hand in hand with all the things I’ve mentioned above to shut off your mind and body to recharge. As anything I do my creative side of my mind needs rest as well as my body to do things that I enjoy better, that is; not forcing yourself to do anything or forcing myself to think would help me. Another way that I plan to have creative rest is by doing DIY projects that I can work when I want without any pressure that just come easily to me to just make things without thinking. Creative rest is as important as any other rest that individuals need. The thing is that there are many ways that I can have creative rest and I just picked a few that resonated with me.

In summary, there are many ways that I could have rested during 2022. I have 7 ways that I will take some time to rest my mind, body, spirit, emotional, mental, creative side of myself and physically. I have felt that these are the most important rests that I need to work on for myself. Although there are many ways that people can have rest after long research and self connection looking into what I need and want for myself. I have chosen the ones that are the closest to my heart and I tend to keep my resolution from 2022.