Heart_Matters - Faith, Family, & Love - What Really Matters!

Have you ever tried to fix an ongoing lack of energy by getting more sleep — only to do so and still feel exhausted? 

If that’s you, here’s the secret: Sleep and rest are not the same thing, although many of us incorrectly confuse the two.

We go through life thinking we’ve rested because we have gotten enough sleep — but in reality we are missing out on the other types of rest we desperately need. The result is a culture of high-achieving, high-producing, chronically tired and chronically burned-out individuals. We’re suffering from a rest deficit because we don’t understand the true power of rest.

Rest should equal restoration in seven key areas of your life.

Before you begin your meditation, find a quiet space to walk. It could be outdoors, or in a hallway, or even a large room, walking back and forth.

Walking meditation can be a formal practice, like watching the breath. Or it can be informal, bringing awareness to this everyday activity, whenever you need to travel from point A to point B. Walking meditation gives us an opportunity to gather our awareness which so often becomes distracted or even stuck when the mind is left to its own devices. Whether moving between floors of a building, on a city street, or in the woods, it is an opportunity to guide ourselves out of the distracted autopilot we live in throughout so much of our day.

Paying attention in this way, we stay safe by remaining fully aware of whatever is around. On any walk, hike, run, or other physical activity, without effort we may mentally check out—or we can practice awareness instead.

Join 250,000+ teachers bringing mindfulness to the next generation.

As a school library media specialist, I’ve always wanted to combine my two personal interests in the library: books and dogs. Public libraries programs with children reading to dogs inspired me to start a program in my school library.

In my previous role as a middle school librarian in New Hampshire, I proposed an initiative for students to read to dogs in the library, but was told no dogs were allowed on school property for any reason. This was not the community to embrace therapy dogs in the library.

Three years ago, I took a position at a library that serves middle and high school students in a Boston suburb. My first year, when students were taking Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, I noticed de-stressing stations in the school lobby. Chocolate tasting and aromatherapy stations were set up in the lobby near a fenced off area where students could visit with dogs and handlers.

I also noticed one of my principals brought his own dog to school every day during the summer. I researched my idea of using therapy dogs in the library for this more receptive environment. When I approached the principals with my proposed reading therapy dog program, they agreed to let me pilot the idea. Organizing and coordinating this popular dog therapy program has added to my daily workload, however, it is so much fun that it does not feel like work.

Amishi Jha studies how we pay attention: the process by which our brain decides what's important out of the constant stream of information it receives. Both external distractions (like stress) and internal ones (like mind-wandering) diminish our attention's power, Jha says -- but some simple techniques can boost it. "Pay attention to your attention," Jha says.