This month we’ve concentrated on simple ways for you and other dedicated leaders to increase rest opportunities, while you are about the busyness of your daily work. Active rest techniques offer up possibilities for increased health and better states of overall well-being. Active rest techniques can happen at any time during the day and focus on mental, physical, social and spiritual rest.

Physical rest happens when you focus your body on simple physiological processes that bring calm, relaxation and mental alertness. It can be practiced anywhere and can be done within a few minutes. Here is one example offered by Dr. Matthew Edlund, in The Power of Rest: Why Sleep Alone Is Not Enough. A 30-Day Plan to Reset Your Body (2010).

A Life Saving Breathing Exercise
Sitting comfortably, breathe in abdominally to the count of four. Then breathe out to the count of eight. Feel your stomach move up and down as you breathe. On round two, feel the air moving slowly in through your nostrils as you take a deep breath. Feel your stomach getting fuller and expanding. Then breathe out slowly. On the third round, breathe in through your lips, pursing them so that you feel the air on your lips and your tongue. Make the breaths deep enough to feel your lungs expand and release. On the fourth round, begin to count in a slow and methodical manner as you breathe in and out. During the fifth round, visualize the air moving through your body in a slow and controlled manner. Feel and hear the air coming in and out, opening up your lungs, filling your blood with the oxygen you need to live, move, and think.

This breathing process is called the Bohr effect, named after Christian Bohr, father of Niels Bohr, who helped develop the atomic theory and quantum mechanics. During World War II, as a half-Jewish citizen, Niels Bohr was trapped in Nazi-conquered Denmark. In 1943, he was heroically rescued by the Allies and flown to Los Alamos, where he helped to develop the atomic bomb. Locked in the bottom of a Mosquito bomber, with a limited air supply, it is thought by many that the breathing technique he learned from his father kept Bohr alive as oxygen circulated deep within his lungs.

While you are not in the same situation as Bohr, what are you willing to try in order to gain a sense of rest and well-being as you move through your fast-paced day?