Rest might not be the first thing on your to-do list at the end of the semester, but finding small moments to recharge in the midst of a stretch of hard work can help sustain momentum. And using the longer breaks coming up for more restorative rest can set you up to start the new semester feeling energized and ready to tackle what’s ahead.
As you head into this final stretch, here are two (seemingly straightforward) questions to ask yourself:
How am I doing?
What do I need?
These questions might initially seem simple, but a little bit of honest reflection can be incredibly clarifying. Sitting with these questions on how you are faring in the middle of the academic year can help you identify things that might help you achieve your goals, or make life feel more manageable, or simply let you have more fun amidst the hard work of grad school.
As you reflect, consider the seven types of rest that internal medicine physician Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith has identified. Her theory is that when facing exhaustion or burnout, physical rest is only one of the things you need. Understanding where you are expending energy and where you are facing gaps and shortages can help you figure out what you need more of in your life to sustain you as a whole person.
Below are quotes curated from several articles about the seven types of rest. You can learn more by following the links to the NPR Life Kit podcast, a Harvard Health publishing article, or this TED Talk. As you read about these different types of rest, ask yourself how well that type of rest is being fulfilled in your life right now and whether more of it could help you more thoroughly reset and recharge.
Physical
“It takes into account all the things that can have a negative impact on how your physical body feels and what are some of the restorative practices and activities that help your body to restore itself and to get to a stronger position and feel more energized.” (NPR)
Mental
For “mental rest, we focus primarily on mental processes - decision-making, memory function, the ability to have recall, to concentrate.” (NPR)
“Mental rest allows you to quiet the mind from constant thinking, problem-solving, or information gathering. To get it, jot down to-do's before bed so they don't occupy your mind, or meditate.” (Harvard)
Emotional
“The emotional rest part of it is looking at how you process your emotions. And it tends to be one that I find that a lot of people struggle greatly with because many of us have jobs and careers and lifestyles where we carry a large amount of professional emotional labor in the process of staying at a high level of customer service or performance where you don't have the ability to authentically express your emotions in that moment. That can lead to an emotional rest deficit.” (NPR)
Social
“Social rest is about resting through community, prioritizing face-to-face time, listening to others instead of just talking, being around people who pour into you as much as you pour into them, and doing things as a collective. You may have a social rest deficit if you find yourself feeling alone, isolated and detached from family and friends.” (NPR)
Spiritual
“At the very core of it is the need that we all have to have a sense of belonging, to know that our life has meaning and has purpose.” (NPR)
Creative
“Writer's block is one sign that you lack creative rest, but others include feeling stuck or uninspired, no matter your occupation. To replenish, spend time admiring art or other forms of beauty, or do something novel. "As a researcher, I could go to a scientific conference where I meet new people and discuss new ideas," Zhou says. "Creativity comes in many forms."” (Harvard)
Sensory
“Our world is highly sensory overwhelmed, everything from just the ambient sounds - I mean, our gadgets make sounds. The lights have sounds, depending on the buildings that you're in. Elevators are going off. Phones are ringing all the time. Our cellphones - our notifications are vibrating. So there's this nonstop movement, noise, action that's always going, and it's having an effect on us. I think a lot of us seem to think that we are tuning out many of the sensory inputs that we're experiencing. But if you really think about that process, you're not able to tune something out without your brain filtering it. And so if the brain is working to filter it, then by doing that work, it can become exhausted.” (NPR)
A few more things to keep you healthy:
Andrea Bridges is the Director for Graduate Student Wellbeing and Community. Andrea earned degrees from Gordon College and Duke University. You can often find her in the garden or at a youth sporting event.
