The Power of Recovery

Have you ever been too busy driving to take time to stop and refuel? Are you wearing yourself out by excessively striving to reach some unrealistic expectation imposed by oneself or the values of society? Contrary to popular belief, stress is not the greatest enemy of human productivity and effectiveness. In fact, stress is good—human beings respond to challenge - without it there would be no progress, growth, and social development. The greatest enemy is not giving ourselves sufficient time to refuel, recharge, and reclaim what matters.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

We will explore

Over the course of a day, we move from a higher to lower level of alertness and arousal every 90 to 95-minutes. These are known as ultradian rhythms within our natural 24-hour circadian rhythm. In essence, our bodies require a short recovery break every 90-minutes or so. The key to effective recovery (active or passive) is not how long we do it but how well we do it. As with any other capacity, we get better at effectively renewing by practicing it more systematically.

Key topics include:

• Recovery is a basic design element of the human body
• Overwork and exhaustion are the opposite of resilience
• What type(s) of recovery am I deficient in?