Newsletter Article: Term 1, Week 10 2024

To conclude the term, I am delighted that our School Psychologists have provided a wonderful article for you, around the benefits of Rest and Restoration for Young People.

I wish you all a happy and holy Easter.

Elizabeth Foxover

Dean of Student Wellbeing  

As we head into the Easter break as a community, it is important to consider how your adolescent and your family can rest, restore energy, and spend time together in a meaningful way.

What do you consider when you think of the word “rest”? Dr Saundra Dalton-Smith is a physician, researcher and the author of the book “Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity.”

Saundra considers rest in a range of different forms including physical, mental, social, emotional, spiritual, sensory and creative rest. You may want to consider which types of rest you and your family need more of over the holiday break.

1. Physical Rest (both active and passive): Active physical rest links to improving the body’s circulation and calming the nervous system. This may include soothing activities such as stretching and yoga. Passive physical rest includes sleeping and taking a nap.
2. Mental Rest: Indicators for needing mental rest may include having multiple “tabs” open in your brain at once, issues concentrating and struggling to calm the brain and settle for sleep. Mental rest may involve the process of “slowing down”, mindfulness activities, taking regular breaks throughout the day or writing down thoughts and feelings.
3. Social Rest:Social rest involves the process of assessing the friendships and relationships that “fill our cup” verses relationships that can drain and exhaust us. You may want to help your adolescent to reflect on how they feel following time spent with different friends and whether they need “social rest” from friends that may be becoming draining.
4. Emotional Rest: This is defined as having the time and space to freely express your feelings and reduce people-pleasing behaviours. Saying “yes” to others often means saying “no” to oneself, particularly when we do not have the emotional capacity to be helping others. This can often lead to burnout. Does your adolescent agree to things that they don’t want to do? Do they fill their schedule up with little time for themselves? They may need emotional rest.
5. Spiritual Rest: Spiritual rest is the ability to connect beyond the physical and mental and feel a deep sense of belonging, love, acceptance and purpose.To receive this, you and your adolescent may want to consider engaging in something greater than yourself and add prayer, meditation or community involvement to your daily routine.
6. Sensory Rest: Our world is overstimulating –bright lights, computer screens, background noise and multiple conversations to name a few. This can lead to a sense of overwhelm. Sensory rest can involve doing something as simple as closing your eyes for a minute in the middle of the day, as well as by unplugging from electronics at the end of every day. Intentional moments of sensory deprivation can begin to undo the damage inflicted by the over-stimulating world.
7. Creative rest: Creative rest reawakens the awe and wonder inside each of us. Nature is perfect for creative rest – heading to the beach, going for a hike or a simple walk in the park can provide this. Enjoying the arts (in any form) is also perfect for creative rest.

You can find Dr Dalton-Smith’s TED talk on this subject here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGNN4EPJzGk&feature=youtu.be

 Apps helpful for rest:

• Smiling minds
• Headspace
• iBreathe

 From the Wellbeing Team

Eloise Conrad, Sally Blight & Natalie Morgan (School Psychologists)