New Book Sharing｜The Art of Rest

Slept well last night?

As loyal fans of wowsai psychology , they recently created a podcast channel " Mr. Sleep's Energetics ". The sleep-themed channel, composed of Dr. Cai Yuzhe of Psychology and clinical psychologist Wu Jiashuo, held a new book lottery last month. I was lucky to win the book "The Art of Rest: Bringing Vitality and Happiness More Than Sleep". 10 Tips for Rest," which recently became my bedtime reading.

This book is the result of two years of research by the authors into a program called the Rest Test, in which team members include experts in the psychological and spiritual fields. The book lists ten of the most effective ways to rest, and even some of them will surprise you and sound interesting.

Before going to bed, I will share with you one of the ways that I think is very good: daydreaming

"The brain is at its most active when we're not doing anything," says researcher Gordon Shulman in his study using a computed tomography scanner.

Instead, when concentrating on a certain task, not only is the brain not very active, but some parts of the brain stop working.

Scientists call daydreaming "mind wandering", which is the most natural state of the brain. The brain will continue to function, just like a shark must keep swimming to avoid drowning, and it will not really "shut down" until the end of our lives.

When the brain does not receive any task notification, it will perform preset activities in a certain area. Another characteristic is that it will start to focus on the "future".

So when we are daydreaming, we often imagine a future direction. Moshe Bar, director of the Visual Neurocognition Laboratory at Harvard Medical School, has an interesting theory: We daydream in order to construct future memories, and once those futures actually happen, we can use them effectively.

There are other benefits of daydreaming: increased creativity, enhanced organizational skills, avoidance of impulsive decision-making, enhanced curiosity, and more

#negative effects of daydreaming

However, mind wandering also has its drawbacks. The study showed that 46 percent of the 2,000 people surveyed were unhappy when their mind wandered, especially involuntarily "ruling about bad things that happened in the past, and then worrying about the future."

When these negative states persist for a period of time, stress can even affect our physical and mental health. Mind wandering authority Jonathan Smallwood calls this phenomenon "Perseverative thinking"

So people who are often depressed, they are often introspective, and are easily influenced by negative thinking. Therefore, daydreaming is less suitable for people with more negative thoughts, but it is suitable for people who put their minds on the future rather than the failure of the past.

#How to get yourself out of annoying thoughts ?

Meditation is a very common practice. From paying attention to a few words, carefully observe the thoughts in your mind;

Another way: body scan. Start with the toes, tighten and relax, then the ankles, calves, knees... Pay attention to each part of the body one by one, and finally reach the top of the head, which can effectively divert attention.

Clinical psychologist Ad Kerkhof has devised a wonderful technique that can help those who are constantly poor and worried.

"Imagine locking all your troubles in a box, and then far away from you, never to get out again."

This method is very similar to the way I went to experience the NLP workshop before. The lecturer told me to think of unpleasant memories as tangible objects, and then imagine them being flushed away by a hose.

Or before going to bed, write a to-do list for tomorrow, or a satisfaction list for today on a piece of paper. Studies have shown that busy people who are less able to get a breather when they are busy, write a long list, but are more likely to fall asleep 15-20 minutes earlier than the average person!

However, these methods may not be effective for everyone, please slowly find your own suitable method!

Our values are that daydreaming is a guilt thing because we don’t study it well enough.

In fact, we don’t need to care too much about whether we are entering a daydream state. Daydreaming helps to relax and is a natural state. It's like a relaxing walk, just to enjoy the scenery along the way.

Rest here refers to short-term and effective means of recharging other than sleep. Short breaks can not only relax the body, but also promote work efficiency and stimulate imagination.

In addition to suggesting how to rest, this book also adds a lot of research data to confirm these suggestions, but it does not have too many difficult theories, and it is quite comfortable and easy to read.

As for what the other nine items are (it is strongly recommended not to read the catalog introduction of e-commerce), you can read this book!