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The Seven Domains of Rest or How to Keep My Mind Occupied While I Try Not to Burn Out Again.

Dear Community,

It is winter break here. Since my children were born, the way I interact with time is different: it’s all about their schedule, my guilt about not being a “good mother” (more on this topic in future newsletters),

and child-centered activitie.

We are staying home during this blessed winter break, so I have made up my mind that I will use this time to rest.

I understand rest theoretically. I recommend it to all my patients (I am known to write prescriptions for “two 30 minutes naps a day” and “focus on rest”). However, the practical applicationof this concept is nearly foreign to me. I am a Romanian-American woman whose cultural and familial conditioning taught me two things: 1. produce and 2. work. (The reason I separate the two is because you can absolutely engage in unproductive work, and thatstill gets the ancestral seal of approval, while resting in the sun like a fat cat brings shame to the entire lineage.)

This nearly foreign concept ofpractical rest is inducing a mild state of panic in my body- for real, contemplating a day without appointments and without clear goals makes my heart race. (My mind,in an unfocused state, is not a cute opalescent pink creative fairy, it is a weapon of destruction. This is not an exaggeration, trust. Leave my mind unsupervised and it will build altars to self-loathing and/or start redesigning my entire life from scratchall night long.)

So the job I am trying to do here is to give my bodydeep rest, while stillfocusing the mind. A very long, slow meditation of sorts. A prayer for the nervous system.

Come dive with me into what it actually means torest deeply. (Also known as: How to Keep My Mind Occupied While I Try Not to Burn Out Again.)

The Seven Domains of Rest I’m Exploring

  1. Physical Rest

  2. Mental Rest

  3. Spiritual Rest

  4. Emotional Rest

  5. Social Rest

  6. Creative Rest

  7. Sensory Rest

In each of these domains, I’m going to name a few parameters to help me track this experiment. Some of them are subjective(how do I feel?). Others are trackable (thank you, Oura ring).

1. Physical Rest

Subjective Parameters:

  • How rested do I feel upon waking (scale 1–10)?

  • Is my body free of pain/tension?

  • Can I move through the day without crashing?

Objective parameters:

  • HRV, lowest resting heart rate, total sleep, REM, deep etc. (Oura ring)

Practices:

  • Passive: Sleep, napping, stillness.

  • Active: Stretching, yin yoga, walking in nature, Epsom salt baths.

  • Mental Rest

Subjective parameters:

  • Can I stay with a thought for more than 30 seconds?

  • Do I feel clear or foggy?

  • Am I daydreaming or doom-looping?

Objective parameters:

  • Screen time (especially non-intentional scrolling)

  • Time spent in nature or analog activities (journaling, reading fiction)

  • Number of decisions made in a day (how present do I have to be with my mind to do this-is it even possible to track this?!?)

Practices:

  • Silent walks with no podcast

  • Not answering texts immediately

  • Leaving space between meetings

  • Letting myself stare at the ceiling for three full minutes without calling it “lazy”

I will define mental rest not as the absence of thinking, but as the clear space where it is obvious that thought and worry are two different things.

  1. Emotional Rest

Emotional rest means not pretending. Not smiling because you “should.” Not managing everyone else’s experience. It means allowing yourself to feel what you feel—without editing, explaining,or apologizing. Resting emotionally feels like not needing to explain your humanity.

Subjective parameters:

  • Do I feel like I’m performing?

  • Am I holding back tears (or rage)?

  • Do I feel like myself in this moment?

Objective parameters:

  • How many emotions I named in my journal today

  • How many conversations felt emotionally safe

  • Number of times I exhaled and realized I’d been holding my breath

Practices:

  • 5-minute free writes of “what I’m really feeling”

  • Crying on purpose while listening to Max Richter (a personal favorite)

  • Saying “no” without over-explaining

  • Spiritual Rest

This isn’t about religion. It’s aboutreconnection to awe, to wonder, to that thin veil between worlds. To the Story behind the story.

When I’m spiritually tired, everything feels like a grind. I can’t hear the myth beneath the mess. I forget that I’m a soul playing human.

Subjective parameters:

  • Do I feel connected to something larger than myself?

  • Can I sense meaning in my life today?

  • Am I feeling grateful, or just guilty?

Objective parameters:

  • Time spent in ritual or prayer

  • Dreams recorded

  • Time spent reading sacred texts, poetry, or myth

Practices:

  • Dream journaling

  • Candles and Palo Santo, Tarot cards and Sacred Path cards

  • Watching the moon and remembering I’m on a rock spinning in space.

  • Social Rest

This one’s complicated because Ilove people.

Social rest doesn’t mean solitude all the time. It means being with people who don’t require performance or hard work for maintaining my boundaries.

Subjective parameters:

  • Do I feel more alive or more drained after this interaction?

  • Did I feel like I had to explain myself?

  • Did I laugh from my belly?

Objective parameters:

  • Time spent with soul-giving people

  • Time spent alone without guilt

  • Number of “no’s” said with love but firmness

Practices:

  • Unstructured friend time

  • Cancelling plans when I need to

  • Texting back “not today” without a novel-length apology

  • Creative Rest

What it is: Reconnection to awe, inspiration, and the sacred muse.

Practices:

  • Nature immersion

  • Reading poetry or myth

  • Dreamwork

  • Visiting art without “creating”

Measurement:

  • Do I feel moved or inspired today?

  • Am I creating for joy, not outcome?

  • Sensory Rest

What it is: Relief from overstimulation—screens, lights, sounds, social noise.

Practices:

  • Darkness, eye masks

  • Silence (or natural soundscapes)

  • Tech sabbaticals

  • Minimalist spaces

Measurement:

  • Do I crave silence or solitude?

  • Can I listen to my environment without discomfort?

I created a spreadsheet to track this for myself, see how good I am at resting in the next week of winter break. I am starting Monday 12/29. Please feel free to access the link and make acopy for yourself, and start tracking with me, if you feel called. Also, if you feel so inclined, share your findings with me. We might end up with some kind of powerful data about REST and what it means to be truly relaxed. All of us need more of the powerful relaxation medicine.

Please feel free to share your insights and observations and comments with me! Would love to hear what you have to say!

With gratitude,

Corina

 
 
 

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© Ideal Endocrinology by Corina Fratila, M.D.

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