Energy is one of the basic and most important concepts related to human functioning. Energy is a resource that is depleted, but can be renewed, that is, systematically produced. How to rest to recharge your "life batteries" explains Dr. Ewa Jarczewska-Gerc, a psychologist of motivation.

Energy - where to get it from?

We are informed about whether we "produce" or use more energy. daily energy balance. This is the daily difference between energy revenues and the costs that we incur by carrying out specific tasks or dealing with difficult situations. Where can we get life energy from? There are plenty of sources. They include, but are not limited to:

  • sufficiently long sleep,
  • he althy diet,
  • regular physical activity,
  • positive relationships with people,
  • sun,
  • contact with nature,
  • realization of passion,
  • leisure.

Rest - why do you need to rest?

Daily recreation as a source of energy is sometimes neglected. More and more people say that they do not know how to rest or even that they cannot do it. Meanwhile, regular breaks in the performance of professional activities are a necessary condition to maintain a he althy balance between work and private life, and also prevent professional burnout. The ability to rest properly has a positive effect on the energy balance, ensuring our he alth and well-being. The right amount of energy resources allows us to effectively deal with difficulties and stress, and helps us control our emotions.

When you are rested, it is much easier for you to control your behavior, for example in arguing with your partner or discussing with your children. Then you have more strength to react calmly and coolly, and not in an impulsive manner, which in such situations makes itself “asking for itself” and then causes a great deal of guilt and shame.

Don't wait for a "great vacation" - get some rest every day

Since it is already known that you can reap only benefits from relaxation, i.e. regeneration of the body, the question arises: how to do it? The answer is not that simple, because the forms of rest should be adapted to our temperament and the type of fatigue. Regardless of the above factors, one of the basicmistakes in thinking about the regeneration of our resources is postponing and waiting for the "big vacation".

This way of thinking assumes that you will not rest every day. You say to yourself: I have too many responsibilities now, but in 3 months I am going on vacation and then I will rest. Nothing could be more wrong! The above approach, unfortunately, usually ends with illness on the way to your dream vacation, and you spend the entire vacation or a significant part of it in bed, instead of, for example, savoring local speci alties.

Worth knowing

Don't live dirty!

The belief that it is impossible to rest every day is one of the manifestations of the so-called"dirty life."Many of us assume that the present time, the present moment of our lives, is only a tool to achieve a better, kinder, more positive future that will come in some indefinite future time. And while the ability to defer gratification, that is, the ability to give up a little pleasure "here and now" to achieve a greater goal, cannot be overestimated, postponing the moment to rest in time deprives us of the energy resources necessary to persistently postpone gratification. Many people mistakenly equate these two phenomena - the ability to postpone gratification and not taking a rest. In fact, it is very valuable to be able to give up going to a party before an important exam (fun usually takes time and energy), but a mistake in the same situation is to give up sleep or go for a walk - although they take time, but give energy).

Rest according to your temperament

When we talk about temperament, it should be mentioned how important is the level of our reactivity, i.e. excitability to stimuli. Highly reactive people are those who react strongly to even small stimuli. If they get disturbed during the day, they survive for a long time and usually take some time to recover. In contrast, low-reactive people need strong and intense experiences to function well, and minor situations during the day do not even penetrate their consciousness.

The level of reactivity significantly affects how we should rest. While highly reactive people will benefit most from rather passive and low-intensity forms, such as reading a book in a hammock or sunbathing on the beach, for a low-reactive person this form of rest will be a form of torture. Of course, this also works the other way around. A highly reactive person, forced to go to a climbing wall after work or to dive during a vacation trip, will consequently be even more tired and deprived of resources. For a change, vIn the same situations, a low reactive person will generate a lot of energy and will willingly move on to new challenges.

Rest according to the type of fatigue

Another important factor to consider in the process of restoring energy resources is the type of fatigue. One of the effective methods of selecting forms of battery charging is the principle of crop rotation, i.e. performing activities of a different nature than those dominating during the day. For example, if you spend the whole day sitting over texts, operating on written material, then reading a book as a form of relaxation may not work. In the case of intellectual fatigue, the best forms of relaxation will be active forms: swimming pool, gym, walking, meeting with friends.

Read also:Swimming: why is it worth going to the swimming pool? Women's gym - the perfect place to exercise The advantages of walking, or 5 reasons why you should go for a walk

On the other hand, if you work intensively during the day and your body is overloaded, when you rest, you will engage in intellectual activities that require mental activity, such as reading or in a more advanced form, such as attending a language course.

Do you have intensive daily contact with people at work? Are you, for example, a doctor or teacher? Do you sometimes wonder why your loved ones you spend time with after work irritate you so much? This is because social interaction stimuli are very engaging and energy-consuming. Although we do not think about speech (verbal communication) in this way on a daily basis, it is in fact a movement in which the entire speech apparatus is involved. Therefore, after a few hours of talking to people, it is only natural that you feel tired and you would prefer not to talk to anyone anymore. Contrary to the popular trends of always and everywhere being the life and soul of the party, you have the right to spend some time alone with yourself, in silence or with your favorite music, without using your speech apparatus for the time being.

Positive priorities, or how to rest effectively?

If you have already decided to consciously regenerate your resources every day, it's time to get to know the so-called positive priorities that significantly facilitate the energy production process. Positive priorities are rooted in the psychology of happiness, which assumes that we ourselves decide every day whether we are happy or not. Positive priorities, undertaken in a conscious and regular manner, lead to an increase in the quality of life.

Positive Priority 1: SavoringSavoring is consciously experiencing a given situation, moment or state,intensifying contact with a stimulus or prolonging a pleasant experience. For example, while walking in the park, you can just walk and think about all the problems that you have to solve at the moment without focusing on the trees around us and the beauty of nature. However, you will benefit much more if you break away from everyday problems for a moment and focus your attention on nature, changes that can be noticed with the changing seasons, a gust of wind, the sun piercing its rays through leaves or raindrops.

Positive Priority 2: GratitudeGratitude is experiencing positive emotions because of the thought that some force - our inner or outer (God, nature, cosmos, other human) - is responsible for an event or situation we have experienced. Every day we forget that we are doing well and usually only realize it when something bad starts to happen. We take it for granted that we are he althy, safe and loved by others. However, objectively, it's not so obvious. Research shows that people who consciously feel grateful achieve many psychological benefits, such as positive emotions, reduction of depressive symptoms, increase in objective he alth indicators.

Positive Priority 3: KindnessEveryone knows what kindness is, but not everyone practices it. Kindness can take many forms - from very petty behaviors, such as giving a smile to an unknown person or holding a door, to more advanced ones, such as offering help or financial support. Do you know what the vicious circle of kindness is? It consists in the fact that a kind behavior towards a person activates the rule of reciprocity in that person and then usually also behaves kindly towards us. What's more, being kind to someone generates positive emotions also in ourselves - we feel good being nice or helpful to others. However, there is also the reverse, the vicious cycle of unkindness. It consists in the fact that when we behave rude or aggressively, we can expect similar behavior from the participant of the interaction. Additionally, being rude usually results in cognitive dissonance, i.e. tension resulting from the observed discrepancy between how we think about ourselves ("we're cool") and how we behave afterwards ("we're rude").

Positive Priority 4: Giving MeaningGiving meaning is trying to understand an event, even though it may be negative, and to make sense of it. Research shows that people with cancer havein this dramatic situation they are able to find the meaning and logic of the experience they have to go through, they go through the therapy process much more easily and have a better chance of recovery. How does it happend? It turns out that giving meaning, although it is a mental process, strongly influences our biological functioning, and more precisely, the strength of the immune system.

Positive Priority 5: Relationships With PeoplePeople are important, and the impact they have on our energy, he alth and happiness is enormous. The sense of social support means that even in difficult moments we are able to deal with and get out of a given situation without much cost. For example, it has been proven that the sense of social support protects against the negative impact of traumatic experiences, such as a flood or an earthquake. Social support is also an excellent buffer against postnatal depression for new mothers. Close and safe ties also ensure that we are not affected by the negative effects of chronic stress, because bonds are a "protective umbrella" for our immune system.

Important

Remember! To enjoy a positive future, you cannot postpone the regeneration of energy resources until "sometime". With that assumption, this future may not have a chance to come. Free time in your life is the perfect time to learn to consciously rest each day, and to implement positive priorities. Charge your batteries, regenerate resources, and quickly see that you are not only happy and full of energy, but also effective and persistent in pursuing your goals.

Category:

Psychology