Creative rest.
Have you heard of the term creative rest? If you haven’t, don’t worry, we hadn’t either until recently. But now that we know what it is, we have a feeling we will be making more time for it.
Author Saundra Dalton-Smith is a board–certified internal medicine physician with over 20 years in clinical practice. She recently released a book entitled Sacred Rest. I listened to a podcast where she outlined the seven different types of rest, many of which we already know and practice including physical rest, mental rest, emotional rest. Over the past two years or more, we might have felt that no matter how much sleep we got, or how much down time we had, we still felt tired. We tend to be pretty aware of the ways we can nourish many aspects of our physical and maybe our mental selves. But what about the parts of us that crave something different: innovating, problem solving, brainstorming, or creating? And how do we learn to recognize when that is what we need?
Oftentimes people can identify this need by the feeling that “the spark” is missing from their life. This creative spark can take on many forms, but it ultimately is associated with feelings of being inspired, staying inspired, and being motivated. Feelings which seem hard to hold onto these days.
This spark is similar to the ‘awe effect.’ For those of you who are not familiar with this term, it refers to things that shift our attention away from ourselves. Things that make us feel like we are part of something greater than ourselves, change our perception of time, and even make us more generous toward others.
This can be achieved by going to the beach, staring at the mountains, or spending more time in nature. Seeing something greater than yourself or even physically bigger than you creates the awe that ultimately makes you feel better.
For example, studies have been conducted to prove that the ocean is restful. In one such study, researchers did an MRI on people who had either recently looked at the ocean, a picture of the ocean, or even colors that resembled the ocean. To their suprise, all three ocean related imagery triggered restorative brain activity in every instance! Dr. Dalton-Smith emphasizes that all of this is highly individualized to you, you just need to find your ocean.
Photo by Anastasia Taioglou on Unsplash
And it’s not just nature– looking at art or standing in front of canvas bigger than you can ignite these same feelings. So can music and dance. This type of rest takes place when we allow ourselves to appreciate beauty in whatever form and let it awaken creativity inside of us. It’s also the appreciation that something beautiful has already been created, and allowing that feeling to create something inside of you.
So if you have been delaying taking time to get outside, go to the beach, or take the scenic route home and listen to a new album, take this as your call to go do that. And if you’re curious to learn more about this concept, check out Dr. Dalton-Smith’s Ted Talk here, or her conversation with Gwynth Paltrow here.
1 https://ggsc.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/GGSC-JTF_White_Paper-Awe_FINAL.pdf