Rest is essential for the mind. The mind needs rest to recharge, and that is where self care comes in. We are usually quite aware of self care routines for our physical bodies – vitamins, exercise, sleep etc. And while it is true that these also helps our mind to rest, it also got me thinking…

How often do we really let our brain rest?

How well do we know our own brain? 

When I first started making yoga an essential in my life, my end goal was to lose weight and look better. Savasana (corpse pose) was considered a waste of time for me. Why spend 5 minutes lying down and do nothing? While my yoga teacher back then preaches us to breathe and rest, my brain was thinking of how fast I can pack up so that I don’t have to queue for the toilet showers later (Singapore’s kiasu spirit i know). My brain does not rest at all.

Now, I enjoy the 5 mins of savasana in my own practice. I take that time to look closely into my brain, “making friends” with it to understand it better.

Our brain is pretty amazing – I read somewhere that we can have more than 1000 thoughts a day without us realizing. So do we just brush all thoughts away, rush through each day in a daze and when we finally plunge into our bed at the end of day, we feel exhausted but we have no idea what we have done or why we are doing all these?

We can all make a conscious effort to know our thoughts better by practicing mindfulness. When we befriend our brain and spend time with it regularly, we will increase our self-awareness. Having self-awareness increases our mental clarity and daily productivity in all aspects of our life. We learn to process our emotions (derived from our many thoughts) in a healthy way and not judge our whole life based on our present emotions.

I encourage you to spend some time with your brain, preferably 2 times a week to start off. Start with a pace where you are comfortable with. If it means just one minute each time to focus on the rhythm of your breath, that is also alright. Most importantly, it is a pace that works for you.

There are also many mindfulness apps to download – Calm, Simple Habit etc. My personal recommendation will be Simple Habit.

Alternatively, if you are looking for a personalized practice to rest your frenzied mind, we also conduct private yoga sessions which focuses on mindfulness and other forms of meditation.

“When the mind rests, the world will also rest” – Haemin Sunim

Namaste,

Kim