The Importance of Rest and Reflection

Last month we were fortunate enough to attend the Business Chicks lunch in Melbourne where Nicole Kidman was the guest speaker. At one point during the interview she confessed at how she can lose hours in a day just day dreaming and travelling to far off places inside her head.  She believed this was an important part of her creative development and encouraged her children to find the time to just sit and think.
This brought me to consider the importance of rest and reflection in our busy lives. 

According to the  Association for Pshychological Science,  “Research indicates that when children are given the time and skills necessary for reflecting, they often become more motivated, less anxious, perform better on tests, and plan more effectively for the future.”Last month we were fortunate enough to attend the Business Chicks lunch in Melbourne where Nicole Kidman was the guest speaker.​

​The importance of rest is being adopted by many forward thinking companies in today's workplace.  Click on the following link to see some comical ideas for napping in the office.

http://concreteplayground.com/sydney/travel-leisure/six-creative-ways-for-a-cheeky-nap-during-your-workday/

Included in the Huffington Post’s, 10 Important Reasons to Start Making Time for Silence, Rest and Solitude are the proven health benefits both physical and mental that can be derived from meditation.   In addition to this, inward reflection leads to increased levels in productivity, improvements in memory and the act of emotional cleansing.  Taking the time to stop and reflect, refreshes us and gives us a chance to catch up with ourselves. If we know what’s going on with ourselves we stand a better chance of being at peace with the world around us.   In a world where there is ever increasing concern regarding mental illness, one might think that something as simple as making time for reflection could be a key factor in finding happiness and mental peace.

We have forgotten  how to do nothing.  What makes this concerning is that we are losing a very important skill.  Reflection.

Today’s urban life is fast paced and demanding.  The perceived need to be productive means that we are constantly keeping ourselves busy and filling every waking moment with activity or distraction.  In the modern digital age this is becoming increasingly common  as we fill our spare moments surfing our smart phones,  distracted by social media and communicating with countless people at one time through various messaging applications. The days where we just waited at a bus stop staring at the road ahead seem to be gone.  The moment we stop or have to wait, we pull out our phones to find a means of distraction.  Something to read, something to email, someone to message.  We do not just stare into space and allow our thoughts to distract us.  Rather than turning inward we are constantly seeking external distractions.
Inward reflection also assists us in making meaning of the world around us and contributes to our emotional well -being.
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True happiness is found in the present moment.  If we don’t stop to live in it, we may find ourselves forever searching.