The Sixth Sense

Logging off

When was the last time you logged off or switched your phone off. And I mean off, not just silenced.

We used to shut our computers down when we’d finished. Now we leave them in standby mode. We used to switch our phones off. Instead we, at best, only turn them to silent or vibrate.

This isn’t all bad of course. It’s the reality of the world we live in. But if we are going to be people who maximise our potential, we will need to be people who know the importance of taking time out. You know, that thing called rest.

Here’s some ideas:

- Maybe we could have one day a week where we actually log off. No email, no work, no computer. Just chill. Enjoy life. Spend quality time with friends and family.

- How about ignoring the phone when we’re eating. Savour that time and that food. Enjoy the company of the people you’re eating with by being fully there.

- What if we intentionally created some space within every day to slow down. Take a break. Enjoy that lunch hour. Step out of what you’re in the middle of with a change of scenery. Perhaps a book. Or the park. Anything really, just change the scene.

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Tags: Life, Rest

Resting from and for work

Over time I have heard lots of varying thoughts on rest. Most of these have been helpful in one way or another, though I had being told that this is how I must rest.

It was apparent from the conversation the other day that we all find different things restful. The key is not to identify rest as what others say is restful for them but to find the things that are restful for you.

Using broad strokes, it seems there are however two ways in which people rest. Some people are ‘doing resters‘ and others are ‘being resters‘.

Again, I don’t think there is a right or wrong here. It about identifying the things that reenergise us. For me personally, I need do nothing time to feel rested and refreshed. I need space to just be. I might right. I might listen to music. I might, literally, do nothing.

For others - like my wife Rachel - this is as close to hell as she can get this side of eternity. She likes to be doing something. Needs some kind of agenda or focus. And, typically, wants to be around others. This is how she recharges.

As a quick throw-in here, knowing how each other rests in a marriage or partnerships is going to help a lot!

Anyway, none of this links with the title so far. It’s one thing to know how we rest, it is another thing to understand why we rest. Like anything, if we don’t understand the why, we won’t value it.

I have seen two categories of people when it comes to the why of work. There are those who work, work, work and then pretty much collapse in exhaustion. They find themselves resting from work (not always by choice!).

Then there are those who see that our design as human beings is such that we are wired for work. Things start to go wrong when we’re not working. And so we rest in order to be able to do work.

My suspicion is that most people’s approach to rest is that of resting from work. Our approach to work is that it is something that we quite like to not have to do. We live for our rest (weekends, holidays, etc).

I actually think we need to understand rest in both senses. We work hard, give everything, and then take a deserved break. But we also need to understand that work is part of our make up as human beings. We need to find ways to connect purpose to our work that goes deeper than a pay check.

When we connect our work to a larger sense of purpose and meaning it makes sense that we rest in order to be able to give our all to that. We take time to get recharged so we can give our work our best.

What do you think?

Tags: Life, Rest

How do you rest?

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to ‘rest‘ lately. You know, taking some time out, having a day off, slowing down, chilling out, etc.

I want to explore this some more in future blog posts but, as part of this focus, I wanted to generate some conversation about this first.

Something I’m pretty convinced of is that rest looks different for each of us. For me, being around lots of people is not at all restful. For my wife Rachel though, so is so energised and refreshed being around others.

For one person, reading my be restful. And for another, climbing up a mountain may just be the restful tonic they need.

So, here’s the question. What do you find restful? How do you like to rest when you get the chance?

What do you think?

Tags: Life, Rest