Tired of Being Weary Part 2 – Mental Rest - Lisa E Betz

Do you feel mentally weary or in a brain fog? Frustrated that you can’t keep up with your to-do list? Feeling overwhelmed and stuck, incapable of making a decision? Do you find yourself irritable and snapping at others for no good reason? These are symptoms that you may be lacking in mental rest. Your ability to think and process has become depleted and needs some R & R.

I don’t mean Rest and Recreation (although they’re good too). In this series of posts, R & R stands for RELEASE and RESTORE.

Because to give ourselves the mental rest we need, we must be intentional about releasing or reducing the things or habits that deplete us, and intentional about restoring or reviving what has been depleted.

What do I mean by mental rest?

The rest I’m talking about is much more than sleep or passively relaxing in the recliner. Passive actions like sleep won’t fully restore all the ways our brain and thinking capacity are depleted.

As Saundra Dalton-Smith M.D. says in her book, Sacred Rest, “For every depleting activity in your day, there is a counter reviving activity to balance the scales.”

Rest involves reducing what is causing stress, AND participating in activities that reinvigorate our bodies, minds, and emotions. Unfortunately, we may not be aware of how our thinking habits and our focus on staying productive might be keeping us from getting the mental rest we need to be whole and healthy.

And that’s a problem, because mental fatigue is a significant factor in preventable accidents. When our minds are tired, it not only affects our ability to make good decisions, but it also affects our reflexes and coordination. Which in turn leads to falls and accidents.

No one wants that!

The strategies below will help you give your mind the rest it needs so you can think and act clearly and safely.

Things you may need to RELEASE or REDUCE because they deplete you.

The following list includes common thought patterns, unhelpful beliefs, or habits that may be adding to your mental weariness. Consider which of these habits or thought patters are the most troublesome and become more intentional about reducing their frequency in your life.

Multitasking. Forcing your brain to do multiple things at once causes a lot of strain on your mental energy. Your brain wasn’t designed to work this way. Read this sobering article on the high mental cost of multitasking.
Working without breaks. While constantly switching tasks isn’t productive, neither is working for hours without a break. Once your mental energy is depleted, pressing on with the task is inefficient and won’t lead to your best work.
Draining tasks. Some tasks mentally deplete you more than others. Know which ones drain you the most and avoid scheduling long stretches of this type of work. (Or better yet, delegate it to someone else.)
Wasting time on non-essential tasks. If you want to be productive, don’t waste mental energy on trivial tasks before you’ve tackled the important stuff. (Some of us procrastinate by staying busy doing non-essential things while avoiding an important task. Not a good habit!)
Your inner critic. We all have an inner voice that critiques our decisions and criticizes us for being less than perfect. But we don’t have to listen to everything it says.
Worst-case scenario thinking. Focusing on what-ifs, imagining the worst, and wasting brain energy on planning for dire eventualities which will almost certainly never happen.
If-onlys. Replaying past events and agonizing over what you should have done. It’s good to learn from mistakes. It’s detrimental to get stuck in them.
Looping thoughts. Allowing the same worries or thoughts play on endless repeat in your head.
Escapism. Escaping into a mental fantasy or wishing you were somewhere else. (Newsflash: trying to escape a problem or task won’t make it go away. It just makes you feel more miserable when you eventually face it.)

We can’t prevent thoughts like the ones above from happening, but we don’t have to give them free reign in our minds. We can intentionally turn down the volume on unhelpful or draining thoughts and focus on more productive ones instead.

How to RESTORE what has been depleted

Sometimes what our brains need most is a good night’s sleep. Beyond that, we need to become more deliberate in adding activities and habits that restore what has been depleted in our mental realm.

This list offers suggestions that will help you reinvigorate what is stressed or depleted and improve overall health and wellbeing to your mind and body.

Take short breaks. Many studies have shown that short breaks allow you to restore depleted mental energy and return to the task with better focus and productivity. Read this article for tips on how to take effective short breaks.
Switch to a different task. Different kinds of thinking utilize different areas of your brain. Therefore, switching mental gears can offer one part of your brain a respite while you focus on a different kind of task. For example, switching between balancing the checkbook and writing a note to a friend.
Intentionally focus on more positive soundtracks. If your mental soundtrack is filled with critical or defeatist thoughts like, “I’m a failure” or “It’s too hard, I’ll never succeed,” you can deliberately practice replace those thoughts with positive ones that are both more true and more helpful. Read more about that here.
Practice physical activities that require you to focus. Yoga, dance, fishing, basketball…. Anything that gets you out of your head and fully focused on what you are doing right now will give your mind a break from the inner chatter that causes stress and anxiety.
Contemplative practices. Meditation, labyrinths, and other activities that help you quiet the inner chatter, re-focus and restore peace inside your head and soul.
Focusing on God’s Truth. Reading or listening to the Bible, listening to inspiring podcasts, attending Bible studies. These and similar activities restore and reaffirm the Truth that counteracts the harmful and unhelpful messages that fill our world.
Gratitude. Adopting a grateful attitude improves your mood and helps you keep a more positive attitude, even when doing hard or draining tasks.