Meet Alice*, a coaching client with a demanding job as a GP Partner in a local doctor’s surgery and a demanding home-life as a Mum to two small children. After a busy week at work, Alice would start her weekend with an early morning swim, an afternoon bike ride with the family and she might squeeze in a run before going out for dinner with friends. On Sunday she felt awful: low energy, low mood and struggled to function, let alone be present with her family.
Alice didn’t understand it, she thought she was doing everything right: she exercised regularly, she ate a healthy diet and prioritised her sleep. Why did she feel so awful on a Sunday? I explained that while Alice made time for her wellbeing, the missing piece of the puzzle was REST.
I introduced Alice to a deep rest meditation and asked her to practice at the end of the working day to ease the transition between work and home. It wasn’t easy with two small children and the demands of family life, but she made time for a 20-minute meditation. She reported that while she sometimes struggled to let go of the day, the deep rest meditation helped to relax her mind and body, feel calm and replenish her energy for the evening ahead. Alice now makes time for deep rest at the weekend to recover from intense exercise or a broken night’s sleep, before a night-out and on a relaxing Sunday morning. Deep rest is now the first tool she uses to restore balance when she’s not feeling her best.
*Alice is a combination of many of my coaching clients because this story is incredibly common. The truth is, the demands of the modern workplace and our non-stop, always-on lifestyles are at odds with how our brain and bodies are hard-wired to function. The usual ‘pillars’ of wellbeing – exercise, nutrition, sleep and recreation – are not enough for the modern world and I find myself recommending deep rest to more and more of my coaching clients.
If you’d like to experience the benefits of deep rest for yourself, please join me for a free, monthly meditation to guide you from rushed to rested, from exhausted to energised. Please click here to sign up.
Emma Hackett 