4 Signs You Need Rest – and How to Heal for a Stronger Mind and Body

Even if you know the negative effects of working too long and too hard without a break, it can be difficult to break a cycle of overwork and learn to make room to rest. Sometimes this can come down to just trying to do too much, but if your lack of rest has to do with something like trying to cope with trauma by ‘doing’ too much to the point of burnout, a greater changes in mentality are needed.

Whether or not you’re healing something on a deeper level, a lack of recovery time can make it harder for the body and mind to recharge, leading to disruptions in your physical and mental functioning.

Here, experts talk about how to recognize the signals the body is sending us and what we can do to promote healing now and build long-term resilience.

How body and mind work together

Holocaust survivor, New York Times Bestselling author, National Jewish Book Award winner and psychologist specializing in trauma, Edith Eva Eger, Phis the author of The ballerina of Auschwitza memoir for young adults in which she shares her experiences of surviving in the camp and then coming home, wracked by grief and guilt, but realizing that she can choose to live and experience joy again.

“I realized my limitations,” says Dr. Eger. “I have limited power outside of me, but (the Nazis) could never touch my mind. And I think that helped me a lot.”

Jennifer Mann is a mind-body practitioner, yoga instructor and functional movement therapist.

and has suffered from severe chronic fatigue. Co-author of In THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF THE BODYshe now supports others in healing their nervous systems using trauma-informed, mind-body healing modalities, which have been a large part of her own recovery journey.

“If you take the thoughts, emotions, memory, trauma of the brain and separate them from the experience of the body and you look at the body as a robot of parts and the mind as its own machine, it’s really difficult to separate them. cured. processes that are so interconnected,” Mann explains.

Calming the body can help calm the mind – and vice versa, she adds. “The mind and body are one through the connection between mind and body, and the connection between mind and body is the brain and the nervous system. And our brains and bodies are constantly talking to each other. We live because we have a nervous system. The element of connecting the mind, our thoughts and the body really allows us to dig deep into the root of what is causing these more complex mind-body disorders and really get to the root of some of the unresolved trauma responses that exist in the body turns up.”

Ashley Neese, author, mother, publisher of The deeper callsays: “Failure to prioritize rest can lead to burnout, which affects our decision-making, health and creativity in professional life. Personally, it puts strain on relationships, reduces emotional resilience and harms overall well-being.”

Don’t miss the signs

A few indicators that you need rest may include (but are not limited to):

• You’re always exhausted. Persistent fatigue, even when you’ve gotten “enough” sleep, is a big red flag.
• Focusing problems. If you feel like you can’t focus on tasks or conversations, or if you notice that you’re not remembering information as well as usual, it could be a sign that you need a break.
• Your immune system is shot. If you are constantly getting sick or not healing as quickly as you used to, if you get a cut or injury, this could also indicate that you are burned out.
• Your mood is everywhere. While mood swings can be related to a number of things, if you notice that mood swings are starting to feel like the norm, your body may be trying to get your attention through your emotions.

You officially need some rest. What now?

Recognizing that you need to rest is one thing, but actually doing something with that information is another.

Awareness is an important first step, Mann says. “It helps you delve into learning the messages that are the language of the body, which means learning to listen and tune in to sensations, emotions and heart, heartbeat, your breathing sensations, and really learning what these mean and how they translate into a pattern that may or may not be comfortable.”

From there, she says, you can start breaking those patterns as they arise, and then redesign new ones that better support the well-being of your mind and body.

“Calmness begins, really begins in the body,” says Mann, “when a sense of safety is felt in the body. And then the felt sense of security is achieved through different techniques, through awareness, interruption, redesign, or the support of a therapist, or through doing more of what you love, or through a job that you know that it is not good for you, or by saying: not more often when you have said yes and you are so tired or slow down doing the things that are good for you, and you start to feel the safety in your body, then you are really calm on a physiological level.

To build more calming practices into your day, Neese recommends: “Start incorporating small moments of awareness, like deep breathing or short breaks from your screen, throughout the day to reset. Maintain a consistent rest practice, such as a weekly nature walk, and set boundaries around work to create space to relax and rest.”

If it feels a little weird at first, she adds, you’re not alone. “Resting often feels uncomfortable at first, especially if you’re used to a fast-paced lifestyle or constant productivity. However, the benefits of emotional regulation, a deeper connection to nature and community, and overall well-being make it a rewarding practice worth cultivating.

Building long-term resilience

While it would be great if the work to heal and rejuvenate were ever enough, the reality is that life and work come with challenges, and it is essential to focus on how we can build long-term resilience.

Dr. Eger reflects on her time in the camp and how it influenced her experiences when she later came to the United States. “The Nazis wouldn’t really be cruel to us and sometimes our own people were crueler than the Nazis. We worked in a factory and we had to cut wire and that’s basically exactly what I did when I came to America. I worked in a factory cutting the threads of small shirts. So I was experienced from the camp. I think everything was an opportunity to discover trades that we never thought we would have. I think it was very important for us not to fall into this ‘us and them’ narrative and not to be idealistic, but to be good people living in the current times and hoping that the best will come someday. For me, that actually meant praying a lot for the enemies.”

She adds, “They controlled a lot of things, but they could never take away my dreams, my hope and the way I give that hope to myself.” She says that in the future, when problems arose, she reminded herself: “This is temporary and I can survive it.”

While the basics like sunlight, time in nature, sleep, and setting boundaries are important, Mann says, doing more of what we love is also incredibly powerful. “If we know what those things are, and just make sure that we implement them throughout the day and that we really take the time to give our body that goodness so that it has the time and space to be in harmony and to help us on our journey.”