Rest, Reflect and reset

REST

When you are laying out your plan for your week, are you including recovery days? If not, you should be! So why can’t you do the same when you need some days to yourself. Some of us love to go hard all the time, but avoiding adequate rest days can set you up for things which will eventually force you into taking these days—whether you like it or not. It’s important to include those rest days into your life to allow your body to fully recover from the stresses of everyday life. These type of days will still help you move forward toward reaching your goals.

A rest day is just that. A day of low activity that you spend RESTING and doing bare minimum. Resting your body, your mind, if you take a full rest day make sure you focus on getting a few extra ZZZ’s, eating well and staying hydrated so that when you want to push your body again the next day it’s ready to go. Whatever you decide your recovery day should look like, enjoy it. Not only does your body need the rest but your mind does too. It takes a lot of mental toughness to stay committed this vigorous life and your mind benefits from a little break once in a while as well.

If you don’t allow sufficient time off support these processes, your body will break down otherwise, this can reduce performance and productivity. At first, it’s difficult, but over time it becomes second nature. Once you adapt to a given stress, you require additional stress to continue to make progress. But there are limits to how much stress the body can tolerate before it breaks down.

Taking a rest day keeps your schedule from becoming too crowded. Use your free day to spend more time with family and friends. Take your normal exercise time slot and do a hobby instead. Creating a healthy life is all about balance. It involves finding a way to split your time between home, work, and your fitness routine. Taking a rest day allows you to tend to these other areas while giving your body the time it needs to fully recover. Sleep is also important. Make sure to get plenty of rest. The number of rest days you need will vary based on the type and intensity of your days. It’s important to listen to your body. It will tell you if it needs a rest day, even if it’s a day where you are supposed to be working out instead. Listen to your body. If it needs more rest days than that, schedule them in.

REFLECT

Sometimes you don’t give yourself enough credit for the many positive milestones in your life. You might look around and compare yourself to others on their journey while ignoring the many achievements you have done.

Write down and review a list of all your greatest milestones or accomplishments in your life especially when you start to doubt your capabilities. These accomplishments can be anything that makes you proud. Along with achievements, you can also get insight into the many challenges you have faced in your life. Doing this can help you remember how strong and persistent you can be. Plus, if a challenge remains difficult for you, you can devise new ways of trying to overcome it.

Now write down some major challenges you have faced. Think about how you viewed these barriers at the time and how you look at them now. Then, spend some time thinking about what you would change about the situation if you could.

Growth isn’t loud. It doesn’t flex. It doesn’t seek validation. It’s quiet, humble and reassuring. Growth is looking yourself in the mirror, knowing you gave it all you got and congratulating yourself on another beautiful and blessed day.

If you are working towards making changes in life and achieving goals, start asking yourself how you might want to engage in life differently. What types of things would you be doing and experiencing? Would this make you happier or more relaxed. Provide yourself with daily positive affirmations and self-talk to help you reach towards the changes you desire to make. By incorporating positive affirmations, you may increase your overall self-esteem and your motivation to reach your goals. A powerful aspect of reflection is its capacity to show your good fortune.

A gratitude journal helps you define all that you have to be grateful for. However, this is a private experience. You can use your reflection to acknowledge the people who have influenced your life. Then, take out the time to personally thank them. You may want to acknowledge your parents, friends, teachers, supervisors, and even exes who impacted your life in some way.

RESET

If you feel like you’re stuck or you’re just not happy with the way things are going, you might want to shake things up. Hitting the reset button on your life might seem like a lot of work. But taking a few small steps at a time can lead to some big changes and remember—recognising that you need a change is a big step on its own, so you’re already well on your way to a fresh start!

There are different ways we can help our bodies get back on track and feeling healthy again. Eating a healthy diet and implementing exercise into our routine may be the primary issues to our body’s health, but taking good care of our internal sleep clock, metabolism, and hormones are three contributing factors that are also essential to helping our bodies feel good.

We try our hardest every day to not only look great but also feel great. Our mental, physical and emotional health are the most important factors in living a good and healthy life, but sometimes life itself gets in the way of doing so. In order to live a happy life, we have to take care of our bodies. Things such as work, social interactions, school and other obligations we face can interfere with our body’s natural mechanisms and functions.

The world is noisy and busy, and it’s all too easy to fill your entire day with email, social media, TV, music, and chatting. However, it’s really important that you take some time during the day to shut out all the noise, especially when you’re trying to reset. During that time, reflect on your goals and priorities.

If you notice yourself having a negative thought about a person, place, or thing, turn that thought around. It takes practice, but try to follow that negative thought with a positive observation. You’ll notice that when you have a brighter outlook, it will affect more areas of your life than you expected. A reset is a chance to clean up overloaded agendas. Your time is valuable. To do what you want to do, let go of things, people and situations that no longer serve you. Don’t be afraid of change—you might just have something amazing waiting just around the corner.

You are always responsible for how you act, no matter how you feel. It only takes 1 good year to completely change your life. Make this the one. If you rush, you’ll ruin it, pause and be patient. Sometimes, you just need to relax and trust that things will work out. Let go and trust God.

Darkside Don