So, when was the last time you truly took a day of rest? If you are like me, even my âdays offâ from work tend to be filled with running the kids here or there, catching up on the honey-do list, or a hundred other good things that legitimately need to be done, but donât leave me with significant downtime. And then, when I do get a bit of reprieve, I am probably too quick to turn on the TV, check my phone, or do something other than just ârest.â
We all know that it is important to schedule rest and yet it is really tough to do. The tough part isnât just finding the time, it’s sometimes even more fundamental of âwhat should I do to ‘rest’?â or âwhere should I go?â Well, I recently had a really good experience with this and thought I would share a few keys that made my ârest dayâ truly impactful. Hopefully, this will inspire you to plan some rest in your life too.
Our cabin rentals in PA are great for this!
Why a âRest Dayâ is Worth the Effort of Planning
1. It Will Refresh Your Emotions
Your day-to-day responsibilities are important, but over time, if you donât give yourself a rest, these things which you value and which are rewarding to you, will change to being burdens and annoyances. Taking a temporary-but-intentional break from the day-to-day routine re-energizes you to re-engage with the routine.
2. It Makes You More Efficient in the Long Run
Intentional rest will feed your physical and emotional health for long-term impact without burnout.
5 Keys That Made My Day Impactful
These are the 5 keys I found that made my day of rest impactful and these keys are something for you to consider when you are planning your own rejuvenating time.
1. Schedule the Rest Day During the Week
I scheduled my day during my âwork-week.” I even used an âemotional health” wellness program at work to pay for it. As funny as that sounds, my employer got their moneyâs worth for this investment. While I was out of the office for 1 day, I came back with renewed energy and vision for what I do, which will easily outpace the value of that 1 day in the long term. For me, even if this wasnât âcompensatedâ, it would be worth a personal day to me to continue, but if your employer is open to this type of idea, all the better.
2. Schedule the Downtime Ahead of Time
I scheduled my rest day a few weeks ahead of time. This allowed me to work around it as I filled in my daily work agenda, but it also gave me a sense of anticipation. By the time it rolled around, I was excited about it.
3. Change the Surroundings
I scheduled a personal retreat at Refreshing Mountain in one of the new cabins. This was a beautiful, peaceful setting. Quiet, clean, restful. I was not distracted by a TV (the cabin didnât have one). I had Wi-Fi available, but I was intentional to stay off email, news, etc. I did use it to read a bit but disconnecting from electronics for the day was powerful. It made time slow down for me and helped me relax more than I expected.
4. Get a Good Night’s Sleep the Night Before
I was intentional to get enough sleep the night before, and I packed healthy food for the day. This helped my body feel energized for the day. I did perhaps have too much coffee (the cabin had a coffee maker that I kept filling and emptyingâŚ. ).
5. Don’t Plan a Full Agenda
I intentionally didnât plan a full agenda. I had a list of things I âmight get toâ like a book to read, a podcast to listen to, a journal to write in, etc., but nothing had to be done. I just started with the first thing, did that until I was done with it, and moved onto the next. This was very relaxing, and without the distraction of my phone and email, or the pressure to get it all done, I was surprised how much I packed into the day.
Whether you take a âcabin dayâ or plan some other type of rest, I would encourage you to be intentional about it, especially if you havenât done something like this for a while (or ever). You will find it to be time well spent. If you are looking for a good place to plan your next rest day, check out the cabins at Refreshing Mountain. You can learn more about some great options for personal retreats on the cabins promotion page of the website.