Our brains literally never switch off, but when your exhaustion is caused by too much mental exertion, you can find rest through activities that put your mind into a kind of ‘low power’ mode. This gives you the opportunity to restore mental energy and clear out any of the waste products of cognitive work.
These activities will differ from person to person, and it will take a bit of experimentation for you to discover which works and which don’t. As with emotional rest, the activities you use to recuperate shouldn’t be thought of as unproductive or a waste of time. You know by now how detrimental exhaustion can be to your life.
It’s hard to notice your own mental energy levels until it’s too late. But start paying more attention to the things that demand your mental energy now. Do you feel like you always have to be ‘switched-on’, reachable 24/7 and available to work at a moment’s notice? Do you allow yourself to engage in activities that require low mental energy, or are you inclined to turn everything you do into another cognitive challenge? If you make all your hobbies into side hustles, only read books that are productive rather than reading for pleasure, and turn by means of a podcast or audiobook … is it any wonder that you’re exhausted?
There is nothing wrong with valuing mental effort, but it seems like this has been taken to the extreme for many of my generation. If you’ve learned to associate your self-worth with your mental output, you’ve probably extrapolated from this that any time spent conserving mental energy counts against your worth. In reality, you deserve rest and recuperation as much as you deserve respect for your achievements.
When you build mental rest into your day, you find that the hours you spend using mental energy are actually more productive and more enjoyable. You’re less fatigued and so less distracted. You’ll find that activity is less draining, so you might spend the same amount of time working but notice you feel better than before at the end of the day.
Activities that recharge your mental energy may use emotional or physical energy, and they may even need some cognitive effort, but they will likely be different to the mental tasks you do on a daily basis. If your job requires a lot of mental energy, it’s important to find pockets of time throughout the day where you can get respite, even if it’s only for a few minutes. I try to take regular breaks where I give myself a low mental energy task, like making a cup of tea or watering my houseplants.
During these activities, I make sure my phone is nowhere in sight because I don’t want to spend energy resisting the temptation to scroll on social media or check my emails.
When planning your own mental rest, start out by looking for activities that have one or more of these features:
1. Flow
The feeling of being ‘in the zone’ can alleviate some of the cognitive cost of activities. When was the last time you felt like nothing could distract you from the task at hand? It might be during physical exercise, or playing an instrument, being creative or learning a new skill. Your mental rest might even be spending time with another person, eating at a new restaurant or watching a film.
2. Mindfulness
Similar to flow is the concept of mindfulness, which involves bringing your attention to the sensory experience around you and within your body while refraining from giving attention to thoughts and mental tasks that would take you out of the present moment.