In one of his Mindset Mentor podcasts last week, personal development coach Rob Dial stressed the need for rest as an essential element of successful endeavor. Well, I've always felt the same way...whether you are learning something new, working out at a sport, or tackling projects, taking breaks is an important part of consolidating gains and building the body and mind back up. Dial claims that there is evidence that the brain uses these periods of nonactivity to prioritize what matters most and build the necessary neural networks...sounds right to me. But in advocating rest, he emphasizes that crashing out in front of the TV or getting hooked for hours on social media or video games doesn't fill the criteria he means for refreshing, reinvigorating rest. Better to find a quiet, pleasant place to sit or lie and either let the mind focus on the immediate surroundings or give it a positive theme to think about...no point in trying to turn off the thinking since your brain always thinks, just as your heart always beats and your lungs always breathe...but you do have a degree of control over what you're thinking about. As for me, I find at work that just sitting down for a few seconds at times, taking some slow, deep breaths and looking at the wall facing me...temporarily putting my immediate work out of my thoughts...helps to greatly reduce built-up anxiety and makes me sharper as I return to my tasks while helping to interrupt any negative thinking that I had been engaging in. On a broader scale, it's also fun to take a day or two off every now and then and either hang out at the house or travel to a pleasant location, which is what Melissa and I just did the last couple of days with our trip to the beach...
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