Finding Your Resting Channel

The ability to rest is a skill that should be cultivated throughout our lifetime. Wearing many hats (or shoes) can be exhausting. We all need to find ways to replenish our energy level, no matter the circumstances. Can't meditate? What about exercise regularly? Well, you should find your own ways to unload. Here are some helpful tips from Ph.D Rick Hanson:

"Imagine the benefits for you and others if youlisten to the support and wisdom of your dear friend and innermost being. Thencommit to what makes sense to you, in terms of nudging your schedule in a morerestful direction, refusing to add new tasks to your own bucket, taking morebreaks or simply helping your own mind be less busy with chatter, complaintsabout yourself and others or inner struggles. For example:

1. Upon first waking, bring to mind yourfundamental purpose in life, whatever it is, and rest in the felt knowing ofit, in giving yourself over to it, like resting in the warm cradling current ofa great river.

2. At meals, pause for half a minute with yourfood before you start eating.

3. Be aware of that little space between the endof an inhalation and the beginning of an exhalation (or vice versa). From timeto time each day, notice that space and rest into it.

4. When you complete a task, take a break for afew seconds or more before shifting gears to the next one.

5. Promise yourself that you'll take a minute ormore each day to sit quietly and remain present with yourself while doingnothing (this is an essential type of meditation).

6. Have real times each day when you truly"clock out" -- no longer on task or accountable to anyone.

7. Encourage your mind to come to rest at leastoccasionally. Tell yourself you can worry/problem solve/grumble later. Themind/brain is like a muscle, and it needs to stop working sometimes toreplenish and rebuild itself.

And when you rest, sink into its pleasures, itsrewards, and sense them sinking into you, like a warm rain falling on thirstyground."

Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a neuropsychologist andauthor of the bestselling "Buddha'sBrain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom"(in 21 languages). Founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscienceand Contemplative Wisdom and Affiliate of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley

Source: Huffington Post