8 Types of Rest Artists Need

I’ve always been drawn to going beyond the clichés in my learning, teaching, and creative coaching, because that lets you dig deeper and get to what’s really special, interesting, and as-of-yet unknown about the topic. (Also, one of my core values is learning/curiosity, probably no surprise!)

I feel the same way about self care - going beyond the clichés is essential, because meeting your own needs is so personal, and the possibilities are so vast. If you’re stuck with just the commonly Instagrammed forms of self care (nothing wrong with bath bombs if you love them, of course), then let’s dig deeper. I talk a lot about rest in conjunction with self care, because they’re very intertwined.

Even in normal times, you usually need more rest than you think you do, and in more stressful times, even more! 

Artists, musicians, and people who do any type of creative work often have a hard time resting, because with a creative business, you have a lot of different hats that you have to wear, or when balancing your personal creative practice or side hustle with a full-time job, that necessitates being busy. 

It can also be really hard to slow down when you're a person who's passionate about a lot of different things, because the ideas keep coming, and you want to do them all! It can be hard to slow down when there's so much you're excited about. Then you might plow ahead without enough rest, ignoring when your body wants you to slow down, and not even realize it, until it catches up with you in the form of burnout. 

No matter how excited we are about our creative sparks, we still need downtime, breaks, and rest, we just can't work constantly without stopping. 

Often when hearing the word “rest”, you might think of physical rest like sleeping or lying down, but I define it as anything that replenishes your energy. This will change from day to day - the long hike that felt good last weekend might just be too tiring today, for example. 

So, how do you even know when you need rest?

The obvious answer would be: you're tired. But you don't have to wait till you're tired to rest, which has been a mind blowing revelation for me, as a person who has resisted rest long enough to plunge myself into burnout.

These prompts can help you clarify in which areas you might be able to support yourself with more rest: 

Here are some of the different types of rest (based on the 7 types identified by Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith), along with questions to clarify and ponder about each one:

Physical:

Do I need to rest my body? How can I prioritize getting more sleep?

Emotional:

Am I feeling overwhelmed by feelings? What kind of support do I need to let them out or work through them? 

Spiritual:

Am I craving quiet, contemplative time? How can I reconnect to my sense of purpose?

Mental:

Am I having trouble focusing? Could I use a break from thinking? 

Social:

Am I craving a break from people, or craving the energy I get from interacting with (certain) people?

Sensory:

Am I feeling overstimulated by sight, sound, or other senses? Could I reduce any stimuli?

Creative:

Do I feel squeezed dry and devoid of ideas? Do I need a change of scenery to gain fresh inspiration?

Financial:

Have I been spending more money than I’ve budgeted? Where could I pause my spending to relieve some stress? 

I invite you to ask yourself today what kind of rest you need.

If it’s many of these types, and that feels overwhelming, pick whichever one seems the most important and urgent. Then, schedule it, or do whatever you need to do to make it happen! 

If you embrace that your energy is going to move in cycles, and that you don’t have to always be doing something “productive”, then you can choose to work with those cycles, instead of resisting them. It's very freeing to change your expectations! 

If this idea is new to you, just thinking about it differently is planting a seed and starting that shift for you - give yourself that permission, because even small changes can make a big difference. I’m rooting for you, you got this!