On the surface level, to “rest” implies that one is doing nothing. Further investigation suggests that rest is a little more than doing nothing. It’s the act of intentionally NOT doing something. This post will provide 7 practical tips to improve one’s emotional intelligence by improving your emotional discipline through rest.
Perspective – It is much easier to recognize your own emotional alignment or need for adjustment when you are well rested. ALMOST everyone knows this, but do you know what you’re adjusting for? Ordinary people find themselves adjusting to suit the area or the circumstances, but I’m suggesting that when you are well rested, you’re more apt to find yourselves seeing things from your own truth. How do you do this? You start by understanding where it is that YOU stand on certain things. When you are grounded in what you believe, you’re less likely to be moved or have your perspective shifted, swayed, or side-lined by the emotional habits of others.
Practice– As we all understand, habits become habits as a result of continued repetition. In other words, your emotional practices. Don’t believe me? Consider how you respond every time someone cuts your off while you’re driving? Do you respond with the same emotional response every time of anger, yelling expletives, or slamming on the horn? Whatever it is that you do, it is what YOU do. Decide today which practices you are employing regarding your emotions and consider giving them a rest. Maybe you’re using the same emotional responses because it takes too much time to “learn something different”. Trust me, it doesn’t. It takes practice. Remember, discipline is a set of actions you implement to support the decisions you’ve made.
Position– This refers to the posture of your emotions. With proper rest, you’re better able to maintain a healthy emotional posture. An example of this is as follows, “You stop at the same gas station every morning on your way to work. When you stop, you’re met with by the same lazy clerk with a bad attitude. One day, you stop and there’s a different clerk. This one isn’t smiling, but your emotions are already postured before even arriving to the gas station in a position of defense.” When you rest, you are intentionally supporting your emotional ability to remain closer to your baseline as far as emotional responses.
Progress– How many times have you been working toward “a better attitude” only to become completely disappointed when you fall short of your intended emotional position? Likely quite frequently. The progress of your emotional discipline is exactly that. You allow yourself grace as a way to ensure that you are resting in the “progress over perfection” model of growth.
Pause– The pause of rest is exactly what it sounds like- the breath between emotional highs and lows allowing for reflection of how your current emotional practices are supporting emotional rest. Picture the person who is always in a hurry or chronically late. Got them in your head? Now imagine how chaotic they are and rushed they are from one thing to the next? It’s important to practice the pause in our emotional discipline whether it’s a rest from our task-oriented activities or a rest between our emotional highs and lows.
Power- When we rest, it allows us to return to our original state and therefore empowers us to maintain management of our emotions, so they don’t manage us. It also allows us to recognize that the world does not revolve around us. It provides us the opportunity to let the emotion lose its power or more effectively shift and direct our emotional power. If we are not rested, our ability to manage our emotional power becomes compromised which in turn, can compromise any aspect of our lives.
Pace– Rest sets the pace of emotional discipline because it arrests emotional chaos in the moment while also reminding us of what our intended pace is.
Overall, one can say that the 7 Ps of Rest as a form of emotional discipline is key to improving our emotional discipline and better stewarding our time.
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