What is sensory rest? Sensory rest focuses on giving our senses a break from constant, often unpleasant, stimulation that we experience throughout the day. I’m going to focus on two ways to do this. The first involves removing stimulation. The second involves focusing on pleasant and relaxing sensations.
- No electronics. While electronics and our devices are wonderful tools, no one can deny that they are very stimulating and, at times, overwhelming for many of our senses.
- Use earplugs or headphones. Earplugs or headphones can help by reducing the noise level or amount of noises that you can hear and have to focus on. This can help improve your focus on important tasks or conversations.
- Turn off the lights. Electric lighting is great, but we know that intense light and/or blue light can cause eye strain. Take a break from using these types of lights to let your eyes rest. While you’re doing that, don’t forget to take breaks and use the 20-20-20 rule to reduce eye strain. (If you don’t know, here’s the 20-20-20 rule!)
- Go smell a scent that you find nice. Studies have shown that smelling nice scents can help people relax, de-stress, and even lower anxiety. So lighting a candle or using some essential oils (if you know how to use them) can be a great way to let yourself relax.
- Do some skincare. We know that when we’re stressed it can affect our skin by causing things like acne or even rashes to happen. Recent research has shown that this relationship works both ways. That means taking care of our skin can help to reduce our stress levels. (Read more about this here.)
- Meditate. Meditation has a range of benefits from reducing stress to even helping with blood pressure levels. One of the primary parts of meditation is focusing on one thing and tuning out everything else. This can be helpful for sensory rest, as it allows you to give your senses a break and relax.
- Listen to relaxing music. We’ve all experienced the effects of music on our minds and bodies. Relaxing music will assist both body and mind in resting. While there is some discussion on what is the most effective type of music to relax to, I recommend just picking your personal favorite.
The nice thing about sensory rest is that it doesn’t take a lot of effort or time to include in our lives. We can turn off the lights while doing other activities and using earplugs or headphones won’t stop us from enjoying other things. Next time we’ll be looking at creative rest.
