Rest and Restoration is Essential Not Optional

   Of all our obligations, aspirations, and priorities in life; we all too frequently find ourselves pushing rest and restoration to the bottom of the list; that is if it even makes it onto the list.

    We are given this one body and it must carry us through the duration of our lives. Imagine if you had but one vehicle  that you could drive for your entire life just how imperative maintenance and care would be in order for that vehicle to continue to function it's best possible as each successive day, year, and decade passes.

    It is normal when we are young to feel well and immortal running our bodies through the ringer: like taking that vehicle two tracking through the woods; eating copious amounts of junk food, staying up late and sleeping little, neglecting and/or overdoing exercise and physical activity, over indulgences such as 24 hour benders of our favorite shows, imbibing too much alcohol or other drugs, engaging in risky situations with potentially nefarious characters, giving in to nearly every momentary whim, and pushing our bodies and minds to the brink in the pursuit of our goals and aspirations. All of this without a second thought to rest and restoration or the cumulative affects that our lifestyle might have already taken upon us that we won't recognize until years down the line.

    As we age we become more aware of the realities of our own health, fragility, and mortality. It seems as though this basic truth, if you don't have your health you cannot fully participate in  appreciate and enjoy your life, only reveals itself to us ever more clearly the older we become.

     We cannot go backward in time and begin to take better care of our physical body and self as a whole entity we can however start now. Wherever and however we presently find ourselves in our physical constitution, lifestyle, and prioritization of time in a day, to begin to make our bodies our friends recognize them as an essential aspect of our ability to travel through this plane of life with the best quality of life possible, and an integral aspect of doing so is to begin to recognize that rest and restoration is not an option but an essential.
Our brains, as well as the total machinery that makes up our body systems as  a whole, requires rest and restoration to restore and rebuild.

   When I refer to rest I am referring specifically to consistently obtaining adequate sleep, that being 7 to 8 hours, ideally per night. It has been shown that even three consecutive nights of sleep deprivation produce the same adverse affects on the mind body and performance as being under the influence of mild alcohol intoxication. Adequate amounts of sleep per night has numerous affects beyond simply making us feel more energized alert focused and capable of handling the tasks of the day to come. During sleep our brain processes the day's experiences into our long term memory catalog. Sleep deprivation therefore interferes with integrating new experiences and learning into accessible memories. Cerebral spinal-fluid also cleanses the brain during sleep washing away toxins. Sleep is also the only time that helps produce cells responsible for clearing dead cells and cells that restore brain tissues. Scientists hypothesis this may have a roll to play in the prevention of the development of dementia in later life. Deep sleep (stage 4) is critical for bodily regeneration and hormonal regulation while in (stage 3)deep sleep bodily functions are dropped to their lowest point and oxygen rich blood is redirected to the muscles and the brain. Both of these sleep cycles are important for the overall healing and restoration of the body as a whole. Human beings have an innate capacity to regenerate restore and heal itself, to a certain degree, when all the systems involved in this process are functioning properly: and obtaining adequate consistent sleep is one fundamental aspect of this regeneration process. These are among just a few of the crucial roles proper sleep plays in the healthy functioning of our bodies in the short and long term there are many others. I wanted to delve a little into the specific benefits of attempting to prioritize and obtain adequate sleep: because we all too often underestimate the vital role it plays in our immediate focus attention energy coping thresholds; and particularly it's inherent and indispensable value in our long term cognitive and physical health. Proper sleep has numerous health and restoration benefits that cannot be obtained through any other means. With this in mind please consider raising sleep to being to see it as the vital priority it is rather than a hindrance to the busyness of life we so readily  and frequently sacrifice.

   When I speak of restoration I am referring to all other means of mind body soul and self care that requires us to slow down and make a conscious decision to acknowledge and enact the importance of rest and recovery beyond maintenance of proper sleep.

   If you are on a regular regime of exercising the workout itself doesn't build up your bodily systems to the contrary, by in large, it causes minor stress responses in the entire body as well as tiny tears in muscles strains and stress to joints and tendons etc. The stress response evokes the immune system to repair damage from the minor stress induced from working out both strengthening the immune system and the bodies ability to tolerate mild levels of dyshomeostasus which our body is constantly trying to maintain. This affect allows us to tolerate mild stressors and physical dysregulation with greater ease. It does not however build and restore the homeostasis and cumulative damage caused via exercise. It is essential when engaging in a regular exercise routine to include light days and total rest days. As it is only on the rest days where the injuries and stresses can repair themselves and build themselves stronger than they were previously. If you resist the rest days you only continuously tear your body down risk injury and perpetuate the immune and stress responses. As stated previously our body has the capacity to self heal, but it can only achieve this healing and even growth, if we make ourselves do what may feel contradictory and stop the continuous exercise allowing rest and recovery days. This is where the building and bodily repair is.

   If you are not in the habit of regular exercise, life itself still has you on the go, people to see, places to go, something always needs our attention it seems. From the constant pinning of social network notifications, to the electric bill, that laundry basket heaping over the brim and onto the floor, our healthcare, our home care, our social connections, responsibilities, obligations, professions, families to name but a few. The endless list of to do's never to be done every day something new finds it's way onto that list, into our calendars, or email inboxes. If we allow it to do so, the very act of daily living can wear your resources physically, mentally, and emotionally, to the bare bones. It is essential that you carve out some time for yourself to do all three of these forms of restoration: relaxation, stillness, and pleasure into your life. Relaxation is taking the time to allow your body to rest and restore. This can take the form of gentle exorcise such as a walk in nature, stretching, light yoga or tai chi, or laying down, even taking a nap if necessary, our body needs to heal itself and we need to enable it the opportunity to do so. Stillness is restoration for the mind. This can take many forms as well from prayer and meditation, to laying in the grass and watching the clouds roll by, getting lost in a book or a favorite song for instance. Pleasure is the conscious decision to step away from the work of life into the life of life. Make time in your days to do things and be with people that bring you joy. "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", is a saying that has stood the test of time for a reason. Pleasure is for your spirit and soul. If living begins to feel like an endless chore it will quickly suck the joy right out of you. We have to make a decision that our lives and our selves are worth stepping back enough to make room for the things we truly enjoy to fit in regularly.

    We live in a society that is based on the chase. The so called 'American Dream", a never ending pursuit of productivity, goal, dream success, and aspiration chasing: and in this is the ever present unspoken but inherent connotation of our self worth; as indicated by our "capacity" to keep up, to go go go, be productive, to achieve and to "succeed." There is nothing inherently wrong with having goals dreams and aspirations quite to the contrary it is healthful to have these as aspects of our lives but far too often they become our lives. They take over our lives and we lose our-lives, ourselves, our self esteem, and most importantly our internal peace; to the faulty notion that our worth is in our achievements and ability to wring productivity or progress out of every single second of each day. Living this way too long is damaging to all levels of our health: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual; and will leave you feeling drained and empty at a minimum and legitimately physically ill and clinically depressed at a maximum.

So please for all of the reasons noted in this blog post: as well as many many many others I could spotlight but chose not to as this post is sufficiently long as it already, prioritize yourself by making rest and restoration an essential and regular part of your life.