Sometimes life feels like a constant push for more.
More work, more action, more results.
What if we gave the same amount of attention to the opposite?
Just BE-ing. Relaxing. Taking a break.
Letting it all go for awhile.
What happens when we care about our downtime just as much as the to-do list?
Sometimes the best thing to do… is to do nothing at all.
Develop the skill of true rest and learn more about why it is so important.
🌕 🌖 🌗 🌘 🌑 🌒 🌓 🌔What does it mean to soothe your nerves, to truly rest?
Your nerves soothe themselves on their own when you rest properly. There’s a right way and a wrong way to rest.
When you’re resting the wrong way, you feel numb, emotionally disconnected, and it’s hard to feel your body internally. You have no energy and just want to lie there – but you don’t feel refreshed after you’re done.
When you’re resting the right way, you feel cozy and safe, alive to the present moment. You can easily sense your body internally: your gut moving, heart beating, vague pulsations of blood moving around, and a (perhaps fuzzy) sense of your WHOLE body. After this kind of rest, you feel revived.
Maybe that’s easy for you. Maybe not. Here are a few ways to make it easier to rest properly:
- Your feelings are inextricably bound up with your body’s ability to regulate (balance) itself. “Feelings” include sensations, emotions, and instincts. Listen to your feelings and follow your wordless instincts as much as you can within the intention of finding health, balance, and comfort. This builds internal safety, internal connectedness.
- Make face-to-face positive social connections regularly. Your voice and facial expressions, ears and eyes, are direct ways into activating the "social engagement" piece of your nervous system. Feel into social bonding emotions like love, gratitude, kindness, compassion, togetherness, belonging, and comfort, whenever and however possible. This builds external safety, external connectedness.
- S l o w d o w n . Seriously. Slow down. The nerves which are the foundation of restorative rest are very slow. Imagine a tempo of only one beat per second or so. That’s roughly the pace at which restful feelings arise and descend between the body and brain.
It’s important to know that our brains and whole-body nervous systems can grow, learn, and change throughout our life. It’s called “neuroplasticity”. Our nervous systems learn new patterns best when we are slow, patient, curious, and open to new possibilities. If you are functional enough to read and understand this text, then you are capable of improving the quality of your rest and soothing your nerves!
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A practical way to soothe your nerves within your small day-to-day life choices is described here:
Want more technical details? Learn about the neuroscience of soothing your nerves.
Our interactions with others can create both our biggest stressors and our biggest comforts. Learn about some ideas that might help you soothe your relationships.
