10 ways to rest and restore your energy

Energy

We live in a world that talks in the language of energy.

When people are feeling great and have lots of energy, they might use words to describe themselves, such as:

energised
charged
full
activated
having a bounce or spring in their step
firing on all cylinders

But when people are not at their best and have low energy, they can describe themselves as feeling:

burnt out
exhausted
depleted
drained
running on empty
worn out

This is because we’re energetic beings.

We need to recharge our energy systems, and we do this through RESTorative practices.

We live in a world that wants us to keep going. It celebrates how much we can do and produce.

Busyness is applauded as some kind of virtue (it’s not!) and it can be used to measure a warped idea of success or personal importance.

But we’re not designed to go on, and on, and on, and on…

People often try, and they may get away with it for a while, perhaps even years, but soon the cracks start to show and eventually something happens to make them stop, rest and review their choices.

We need to stop, to pause, to rest, replenish and nourish ourselves.

It’s not a ‘nice’ thing to do. It’s essential.

Yes of course action is important, but so is the need to rest.

Signs you need to top up your energy

If you find yourself feeling or experiencing any of the following, you need to prioritise rest:

Feeling lethargic
Being forgetful
Feeling grumpy or ‘out of sorts’
Making mistakes
Withdrawing from things, or people, you care about
Waking up feeling tired
Difficulty falling asleep
Feeling a lack of purpose or direction in your life
Frequently feeling ‘off’ or even getting sick
Having difficulty making decisions, and sticking to them
Feeling disconnected from yourself

How to rest and restore your energy

I’m going to share with you 7 types of rest and 3 types of nourishment that you need to consider if you want to avoid overwhelm, exhaustion and burnout, or generally just feel much better about yourself and life.

You don’t need to do all of them!

You’re probably already good at some of them.

The 10 types of rest and nourishment pie chart

ACTION

As you read through the 10 types of rest and nourishment, notice which ones you’re already doing, and which you could benefit from the adding to your regular routine.

Here are the 10 ways you can rest and restore your energy

The first 7 are different types or rest – activities that you need to pause and take a break from.

Followed by 3 are areas of your life that need to be nourished – areas where you need to do or add something in order to rest and restore your energy.

In a world that glorifies ‘busyness’ we can often see not being busy as being lazy.

But it’s not.

The opposite of busy isn’t lazy.

The opposite of busy is meaningful connection. It’s deep rest and nourishment. It’s presence.

Your body needs to have time to stop being active.

It’s easy to slip into the habit of burning the candle at both ends, running from one appointment to the other. Adrenaline fuelling your body instead of life.

In amongst all of the activities of life, here’s some ideas to give your body a rest:

Gently stretch your body. Allow it to uncurl from the sitting, driving, carrying and lifting.
Massage your body and say affirmations to thank your body for all that it does.
You could even massage your body with an enchanted oil to energise or soothe your muscles.

Our minds are on the go all the time. Thinking, trying to solve something, even second-guessing ourselves.

Tasks often merge from one to another, we can even find ourselves mindless scrolling or staring at a screen trying to force yourself to work.

In amongst all of your thinking and learning, here’s some ideas to give your mind a rest:

Take rests from focused tasks.
Set a time limit for a task. Then take a 5-minute break. And then go back to your task.
If you work for yourself, or from home, make sure there’s a clearly defined ‘end’ to your work day.
Step into nature and let your eyes focus on something in the distance – this is particularly important if you’ve been sat in front of a screen for a period of time.
Hum, sing or whistle your favourite chant or song.
If you have to stay at your desk, give yourself a few minutes to look away from your screen and daydream about something you’re passionate about or visualise an intention you’re working on.

From an early age we’re often taught not to make a fuss or not to be too loud, too opiniated or too much. This can make it hard for people to express how they truly feel.

Yet it’s essential to express how you’re honestly feeling, or the pent up, repressed emotions can leave you feeling frustrated and undermine your self-esteem.

In amongst all of the many, many feelings of life, here’s some ideas to give your emotions a rest:

Talk to a trusted friend or a therapist, if you have access to one.
Journal. It’s a great way to explore your emotions and uncover what you’re really feeling. Helping you to get clear on what you actually need to do and focus on.
Write down how you’re feeling, or write an (unsent) letter to a person or situation that’s bothering you, don’t send the letter, but burn it somewhere safe and suitable. Let your emotions be transformed by the fire.

All day, every day, each activity, interaction and task you do creates an energetic exchange. These invisible ways that we spend our energy can leave us feeling drained without even realising what’s happened.

It’s essential that you learn to be intentional with where you spend your energy, as the phrase goes: ‘When attention goes, energy flows’.

In amongst the many millions of interactions you have, here’s some ideas to give your energy a rest:

Stop giving your time, energy and attention to things that leave you feeling anxious or depleted.
Call back your energy and power by grounding your energy, so that you feel centred in your own body, rather that buffeted by the energy and emotions of those around you.
And here’s a second article on ways to ground your energy.
Cleanse your energy of other people’s emotions and expectations by having a salt bath or magickal shower

The Importance of Energy podcast episode

In this episode I talk about the importance of your energetic health. You may look after your physical body, but if you don’t look after your energy too, it’s like you take two steps forward and one step back, and you’re left feeling frustrated at doing all the ‘right’ things, but not getting the outcomes you desire.

Throughout much of life we have learned to ask: ‘who do I need to be in this situation to be accepted or loved?’

This can lead to a lifetime of taking on roles or wearing masks to ‘fit in’.

Sometimes it’s handy, most of the time it just hides the truth of who you are.

In amongst all of the expectations placed upon you, here’s some ideas to give yourself a rest:

Take a break from being the good girl, the people pleaser, the ‘fixer’. Stop being a chameleon or all-things-to-all-people and let yourself simply be.
Get clear on who you are and what’s important to you.

In my book ‘Magickal Knickers and other ways to create a life of intention – Reclaim the Magick of You’ I share how we can create a life on our own terms, a life that celebrates who we are, and that it can start simply by consciously choosing your knickers.

Magickal Knickers podcast episode

As fun as it can be meeting people, visiting places and having new experiences, sometimes you just need to slow down and not expend all your energy.

In amongst all of the demands placed upon you from others, here’s some ideas to give yourself a rest:

Choose to spend more time with people that really nourish you and celebrate you for exactly who you are.
And if you’re an introvert, ensure you have time alone to recharge.
Use the magick of your words, cast a ‘spell’ of ‘no’ as you decline an invitation to prioritise your energy turning inwards to focus on restoring you.

All day long our senses are taking in everything around us. What we see, hear, smell, taste and feel.

As well as what we think of as our traditional five senses, these senses are becoming more refined as we become more attuned to the world around us.

We sense and pick up on so much more both physically and intuitively.

In amongst all of the ‘noise’ of life, here’s some ideas to give your senses a rest:

Take a break from bright lights and loud noises.
Close off your notifications on your devices that are designed to catch your attention.
Step into the void and surrender to the darkness by resting your senses.
Close your eyes or put on an eye mask. Turn off the any sounds, or wear earplugs or noise cancelling headphones. Lay down and put a blanket over you. And just allow yourself to surrender to the darkness. To deeply rest and be held in the dark.

There are three types of nourishment that work alongside your rest to restore your energy. They involve you doing something, rather than taking a break from something:

What spiritual practices do you have that allow you to connect with ‘something bigger’ than the everyday normalcy of life?

Perhaps these are individual practices or practices you do with a community.

Ways to nourish your spirit include:

Singing, prayer, performing rituals, or sharing stories.
Volunteering for something that’s important to you.
Focusing on doing an activity that fulfils your sense of purpose.
Choose your favourite visualisations or meditations. Remember the meditation isn’t to still your mind, but to rest it.
Take a walk in nature and be in awe of her beauty and the complexity of connections between everything.
Draw an oracle card or use some other form of divination to tap into your intuition and the messages from your higher self.

It’s all too easy to lose touch with what’s important to you. Caught up in the should’s and expectations of your family and friends, of your culture and the society around you.

Ways to nourish your truth include:

Taking some time to notice what beliefs and values are yours, and which have been inherited or absorbed from the world around you.
Ensuring that your actions, and the way that you spend your time, energy and resources are aligned with your true needs, desires and values (and not just what you think you should do).
Create a magickal life philosophy.
This is an exercise I take people through from my book ‘Magickal Knickers and other ways to create a life of intention – Reclaim the Magick of You’
Essentially you’re creating your own rules for living your life. A life that aligns with your actual values and the things that are important to you.

Create a magickal life philosophy podcast episode

Expressing yourself in a creative way is essential to your well-being.

It’s not about being good at something, but allowing yourself the freedom to create something.

Ways to nourish your creativity include:

Art, writing, cooking, singing, pursuing a hobby, anything that appeals to you.
Creating something for the joy of the creative process, not for the finished product, you might not even finish what you’re creating.
Craft something to be used in your magickal workings.
- A mini-altar broom made out of herbs.
- Enchanted bath salts.
- Black salts to protect your energy and space.
- Your very own oracle deck, drawn, painted or collaged.
- Decorating your own candles for your magick.

Experiment with the types of rest and ask yourself:

How did I feel during the rest, did you enjoy it?
How did I feel after the rest, did it nourish or recharge you?

You might find you need to focus on one area more than others to support how you feel or what you’re experiencing in your life at any given time.

If you haven’t found something that you enjoy or that leaves you feeling recharged, keep trying more things.

Keep experimenting until you find what works for you.

Rebecca, why haven’t you spoken about sleep?

The other day I wrote about why so many people are feeling more tired than a good night’s sleep will fix, because sleep by itself isn’t enough to feel rested and restored.

If you take sleep out of the equation, how much rest are you actually getting?

Rest isn’t sleep.

Rest isn’t about sitting down and doing nothing, well… not all the time.

Rest is taking a sacred pause from your everyday activities and giving yourself a moment to reset and recharge yourself.

Sleep vs Rest

To feel more energised you need to, of course, have some good quality sleep, but you also need to rest too.

When you sleep your body physically repairs itself, helps you recover from illness, and process the day you’ve had.

Whereas rest promotes physical, mental and emotional well-being.

Both sleep and rest are essential for you to feel more alert and energised.

Sleep is essential for the quality of your health and well-being and rest is essential to improve your quality of life.

You can try and get by on little sleep, or poor quality sleep, and you can dismiss rest as lazy, indulgent or not needed, but the effects will eventually catch up with you.

Lack of sleep and lack of rest will eventually lead you to feeling exhausted and burnt out.

Now over to you

Ideally you’ll have a balance of the 10 ways to rest and restore your energy across your life, that’s the ultimate goal.

But start where you are.

Focus on just one area.

What’s one area of rest or nourishment that you could focus on right now?

If you’re not sure, what intuitively feels like the place to start.

Still not sure? Which one feels like the easiest?

We’re not aiming for any kind of perfection. In this case done is better that waiting for the right time.

Remember: if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing badly.

A 30 second stretch, is better than none.
Stepping away from your desk for 1 minute, is better than not.
Journaling one sentence is better than writing no words.

Start where you are, but start.