by Kirby Lindsay Laney, posted 12 January 2016
The New Year has begun in earnest, with a restorative and relaxing holiday time behind us, right?
If you are feeling worn, tired and in desperate need of a break right about now, Brad Lichtenstein, ND, BCB recommends taking it. “The nervous system is not designed to go, go, go all the time,” he observed. He recommends taking an active rest rather than passive rest. That is, rather than wait until you collapse, “actively engage in things that cause our nervous system to relax,” Dr. Lichtenstein explained.
A Cascade Of Health Issues?
Dr. Lichtenstein, a core faculty member of the School of Naturopathic Medicine at Bastyr University, did acknowledge, “I’m saying this having 280 days of vacation time banked.” Although, he isn’t talking about taking a vacation – which can cause more stress than rest.
“We’re supposed to have those two days off when we are unplugging,” Dr. Lichtenstein observed, and doing something different from the rest of the week. “If you can’t leave your phone for five minutes while someone goes to the bathroom,” he advised, “that’s an addiction,” and a clear sign that rest is needed.
According to Dr. Lichtenstein, we should take as much time to rest as we do to work – and we don’t. “We give back more time to our employers than any other industrialized country in the world,” he explained. For Americans, a 50-hour work week is the average, and we work 275 days a year, according to TakeBackYourTime.org – a website dedicated to educating people about the need for adequate rest.
“Our health in America is not that excellent,” Dr. Lichtenstein said, “We’re not in the top 10 of longevity.” A recent study by Massachusetts General Hospital noted that stress-related illnesses, such as anxiety and depression, are now the third-highest causes of health expenditures in the U.S., after heart disease and cancer – which can also be affected by stress. It’s a cultural attitude, Dr. Lichtenstein acknowledged, that says, ‘I’m not good unless I’m productive. I’m not successful. I’m inadequate unless I’m working.’
“There is no such thing as a ‘mental health day,’” Dr. Lichtenstein said, “as opposed to a physical health day.” According to him, 80% of people go to see their primary care physician with no diagnosable disease, and 75% of those have ‘somatized’ their issues, or turned emotions/stress into an illness. “Every emotion has a physical manifestation,” Dr. Lichtenstein explained. Constant tension and focus on work, to the exclusion of self-care, can lead to blood pressure problems, GI complaints, insomnia, and a whole cascade of health problems.
Find An Active Rest Activity For You
In addition to teaching, Dr. Lichtenstein works in Mind-Body Medicine at the Bastyr Center for Natural Health. He works with people who have to live with chronic illness and trauma, including working in HIV care for 15 years. Among those dealing with trauma, he’s seen individuals, “who can’t distinguish between what is an emergency, what is not.” If everything is a 4-alarm fire, when do we rest, recuperate, and restore the body’s natural ability to heal.
Unfortunately, active rest must be an individual, personal choice. An activity that may be restful to me may not be restful to you, and vice versa. Meditation can be extremely restorative to some – and anxiety producing in others. It may be restful today, but not tomorrow. Planning a child’s birthday party may be an enjoyable diversion, or a worrisome crisis. “Creating art can be restorative,” Dr. Lichtenstein observed, “but not out of a need for production,” or when stressing over deadlines, critics, and comparisons with others.
When finding those activities that restore, and give rest, Dr. Lichtenstein recommended these three considerations:
- Avoid any activity done out of need or obligation. Look for activities you do based on your own desire, and ones that make you feel more connected to yourself, and/or others.
- Focus on one activity at a time. Avoid multi-tasking during rest time. Rather than walk on the treadmill while simultaneously reading a magazine and watching the news, consider playing with your children – with the electronics turned off – so everyone can listen and be heard.
- Pick activities that make you feel more alive, and livened; not necessarily activities that give you energy. Some of the most restful activities – gardening, yoga, hiking – may leave you feeling physically drained, but also more relaxed and restored.
“Active rest is actively being in the moment,” Dr. Lichtenstein observed, “without judgement.” We need to learn the joy of doing. Learn a sport, an instrument, or a craft to expand your mind, and literally build new neural pathways, rather than for a practical purpose. Meditation and yoga do work well for active rest because they train the mind. “We’re learning to concentrate on one thing at a time,” he explained, “and learning when we’re judging it.”
Help Available, At Bastyr
“This is how we take a vacation,” Dr. Lichtenstein explained, “Can you stay focused on one breath through the whole cycle?” Breathe in, and breath out.
For those who find their daily anxiety or stress too unbearable to address alone, and those who want to learn about how to increase the body’s natural healing, the Bastyr Center for Natural Health, on Stone Way, has plenty of help available. Dr. Lichtenstein recommended biofeedback, including hypnotherapy, meditation, guided visualization and mindfulness training. He also recommended acupuncture, Ayurveda techniques for soothing the nervous system, physical medicine including massage, hydrotherapy and body focused help, counseling, and/or nutritional services.
Also, this week, at Bastyr Center, on January 14th, as well as on February 18th & March 17th, Dr. Lichtenstein will be leading one of the free, frank yet light-hearted discussions on life and death, called ‘Death & Cupcakes.’ “We talk about something that every single one of us is going to confront,” he explained, “and about how to live fuller and richer lives.”
On Thursday, February 4th, from 6p – 7:30p, Dr. Lichtenstein will be giving a talk, on ‘Mindfulness Demystified,’ as part of the free series of ‘Living Naturally’ lectures at Bastyr Center. A recent Harvard-affiliated study found that mind-body medicine techniques such as meditation, yoga and prayer could reduce the need for health care services by 43%. During the lecture, Dr. Lichtenstein will demonstrate how adding mindfulness practices to daily life can improve your health, and your life.
One of the Doctor’s favorite sayings is, ‘no one on their deathbed has ever said they wish they spent more time at the office.’ And even those of us who love what we do need to take a break. Studies have shown that more vacation time for workers actually increases company productivity, and has been found to decrease the number of sick days taken.
Don’t wait until next month when full-scale collapse, or another illness comes along, to take a break. Take a minute, an hour, or a day, and find your active rest, to recharge and restore!
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©2016 Kirby Laney. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.