101 - The importance of sleep and rest
The importance of sleep and rest
Thanks to all who sent notes last week celebrating the 100th issue of the newsletter!
I try to go into most experiences seeing what I can learn from them - whether that be from the people I meet or the experience itself. For me, learning gives life meaning and value. Passing along what I learn also helps me fulfill my purpose in life.
Through my cancer journey, I’ve learned that rest is required to battle cancer. In both chemo and radiation treatment, the number one side effect that you’re guaranteed to have is fatigue. And, I am definitely fatigued. Even being on a break right now between chemo and radiation - as I wait for the docs to get their stuff done so I can start treatment again - I still feel the lingering effects of fatigue from chemo. It is definitely better than it was the first week after treatment, but the fatigue is real.
You don’t have to have cancer or some other illness to feel fatigue though. I remember particularly busy and chaotic weeks and months when I was working a traditional job. After those weeks, if I was lucky enough not to have a Saturday event, I’d pile into bed at 8 p.m. (or earlier) on Friday night and might sleep until 8 a.m. on Saturday morning. If I could, I’d even sneak in a nap on Saturday or Sunday. My body played catch up on all the sleep I hadn’t gotten during the week when I was going to bed at 11 and getting up at 4 or 5.
Sleep is a wonderful salve for fatigue, but so are rest and, maybe counterintuitively, simple exercise. Most days now, I’m lucky enough to add in a 30 minute rest break during the day. It’s a time when I can give my brain a break from all the hard work it’s doing and just rest. And, in the last couple of weeks as the weather in Indiana has taken a turn for the beautiful (although still chilly), Kona and I have been enjoying a morning walk and, many days, Gayle and I will sneak in an evening walk. This simple exercise does so much to improve my mood, mental clarity, and it gives me energy for the rest of the day.
I’m convinced that over the next decade we’re going to hear as much about the importance of sleep as we do about exercise and not smoking today. Sleep and rest are a huge differentiator in good health.
Do you need to take steps to improve your sleep? Is there a way you can build a rest break into some part of your day? Would some gentle activity like walking or stretching help to improve your energy level?
Some Things You Might Find Interesting
What My Friends Published: I’m changing up this section this week to celebrate my friend R.J. Nestor releasing his book The Rhythms of Productivity. I’ve talked about R.J.’s previous course - Action Powered Productivity before. R.J. has taken that teaching and blended it into a wonderfully written book that shares his experience as a musician along with his experience as a productivity expert. I’m enjoying reading The Rhythms of Productivity so much. I highly recommend it.
Keep Up With My Cancer Journey: If you’d like to follow along in more detail on this journey, you can request access to my Cancer Journey website at https://www.mylifeline.org/invitation/Monroe4702670/c4d9a0945939697870a9267ec2cd951230b25b0e9f023ca466233659967b5e46
ILovePDF: Last weekend, Gayle and I were working on something and needed to be able to edit a PDF. I forgot about this tool then, but am putting it here now in hopes that you can get some use out of it and both of us will bookmark it to remember it for the future. ILovePDF is a website full of PDF tools that let you do things like merge and separate PDFs, edit PDFs, and change images into PDFs and vice versa. Since I’m in the iOS/Mac world now, some of this is built in, but some of it is still a challenge so I invite you to try out ILovePDF.
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