Rest Like a Best

Book Title: Peak Performance

Book chapter : Rest Like the best

Author: Brad Stulberg, Steve Magness

        Rest is a time for us to recharge ourselves after a long hour of work. Nowadays, everyone of us has a hectic lifestyle. We put so much effort into work to perform or strike for the best results. It is undeniable that work hard is important. Sometimes we can't achieve the desired results, it is because we are not working hard? Not necessary. We must know the importance of rest. Rest is important because it can help you to achieve more goals in life. Here I am going to share with you how to rest correctly.

        The first way of rest is to explore nature. There is a strong connection between nature and creativity. Exposure to nature makes us feel good and enhance our emotion. Nature exploration promotes mind-wandering and switches our brain into a rest state. Explore ourselves to nature makes us feel more connected to the universe and more humble. This feeling is good for our mental health. Nature is just around us. After long hours of work, take a break and have a leisure walk at the nearby park. Be mindful at that moment. Observe and connect yourself to plant and tree. Relax and indulge in the nice scenery there. This is one of the best ways of experience life. If you are too busy, you can also spend some time look at the beautiful natural picture. It will have similar effects that made you closer to nature and improve your mood.

        I like nature because I feel better and relax after I have exercise at the park. it improves my mood and I can have more energy to pursue goals in life. I appreciate nature because it makes me feel better. Now I always practice good habit like help to segregate the recycle items from rubbish and send to recycle center. I will also send the old and reusable items to the people who need the items. I will contribute my little efforts to save mother earth!

        The second way of rest is to have social support. Connect yourself to your best friends, life companion, and family members. Spend time with them will help you feel better because they are people you love and care about. When we are connected to others, our body will release hormones such as oxytocin and vasopressin that have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Oxytocin repairs your heart and fixes a broken heart. Therefore, spend more time with loves ones and enjoy the precious moment. 

                

        I realize that time feeling is also helping me to experience life. Do you know that we can experience time differently? Every one of us has 24 hours. It is fixed regardless of your social and life status. However, we can control how we feel the time. For example, when you are hanging out or exercise with friends. slow down your feeling. Although the gathering is only 2 hours, we can feel it like one day. It means that we can adjust our brain to slow mode and indulge at the moment. We also can't keep thinking about the future task at that nice moment because the task is always there no matter you have to spend time with friends or not. Life is busy but we can adjust our feelings towards time. Allocate some time for friends or your hobbies in the middle of a busy schedule timeline. Life is busy but we can make it more meaningful. 

        Lastly, sleep is the most important for us to rest. In this book, it mentions some of the benefits of sleep. Sleep can improve our learning ability. After we learn many pieces of new knowledge in the morning. all the ideas and knowledge is like a brick that store in our mind without connection. When we sleep, all the bricks are connected and our brain start to process all the intellectual knowledge. Therefore, it is important to sleep about 7 to 8 hours per night.Sleep also improve our self-control. Self-control is important because it controls our urge to pursue short term rewards and go for long term rewards. Here is the link to know more about self-control.

        If you sleep more, you will have the energy to make a better decision for yourself and give you more energy to face the challenges. Sleep grows our cognitive and emotional muscles. Therefore, arrange your time wisely and sleep more. Have the courage to rest definitely will enhance your life tremendously.