With a concept of justice in hand, we step back to consider suffering, the bane of our existence as living beings. We have identified our aim, to seek, promote and realize the well-being of living beings. Yet suffering persists, and characterizes much of the human condition. Our understanding of it is an important weapon in our struggle against it. As…
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Value for Wednesday of Week 35 in the season of Interlude
Resting and Relaxing
Inactivity must balance activity.
- Refresh and renew yourself, your body, your mind, your spirit. Then get back to work. [Ralph Marston]
- Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer. [William S. Burroughs]
- Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. [attributed to John Lubbock]
Resting is the active component of restoration. It refers to allowing the body and mind to be inactive. “Rest is not accomplished by simply taking time off and then going back to your busy schedule. Rest occurs when you allow yourself to be fully inactive.” “Rest is the only way to engage the part of our nervous system that allows for relaxation.”
Everyone needs rest, especially those who are the most active of us. “In a world that glorifies hustle and celebrates constant activity, it’s easy to overlook the significance of rest and recovery for our mental health and overall well-being. . . . our bodies and minds are not designed to function like machines that run non-stop.”
Resting is multi-faceted:
- Resting the body: “Rest keeps our physical and mental health in balance.” There are several reasons to rest the body from exercise. “By allowing our bodies time to recover, rest helps prevent injuries and improve overall performance. It also aids in muscle repair, reduces inflammation, and supports a healthy immune system.”;
- Resting the mind: “Mental rest means you’re allowing your mind to turn off or stop trying to process information.” “Relaxing generates energy, mental clarity, resilience, and wholehearted caring for others.” “Our brains are like sponges . . . They can only soak up so much information before they’re saturated, then they have to dry out a bit.” “. . . mental breaks increase productivity, replenish attention, solidify memories and encourage creativity.” The brain goes into default mode when we think our minds are at rest. “. . . even when we are relaxing or daydreaming, the brain does not really slow down or stop working. Rather—just as a dazzling array of molecular, genetic and physiological processes occur primarily or even exclusively when we sleep at night—many important mental processes seem to require what we call downtime and other forms of rest during the day. Downtime replenishes the brain’s stores of attention and motivation, encourages productivity and creativity, and is essential to both achieve our highest levels of performance and simply form stable memories in everyday life.”
- Resting the heart: “A normal resting heart rate is between 60 and 100 beats per minute if you are sitting or lying and you are calm and feeling well.” “Resting heart rate is a determinant of cardiac output and physiological homeostasis. Although a simple, but critical, parameter, this vital sign predicts adverse outcomes, including mortality, and development of diseases in otherwise normal and healthy individuals.”
- Resting connectivity: “Regions that are functionally connected at rest form what are called intrinsic connectivity networks. This name derives from the fact that resting-state connectivity has shown to correlate well with anatomical connectivity and represents more permanent – or intrinsic – brain states.” Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) yields clues to connectivity under various conditions.
- Resting the senses: “Sensory rest is like hitting the reset button for your brain. It means giving your senses a break from all the stimuli around you — the noise, lights, screens, and constant chatter.”
“When we rest, our brain is busy consolidating memories and quietly searching for solutions to problems we encounter.” Among the benefits of resting are:
- Increased productivity;
- Reduced stress and anxiety;
- Improved mood;
- Decreased blood pressure;
- Chronic pain relief;
- Improved health of the cardiovascular system (see also here);
- Enhanced problem-solving skills;
- Enhanced creativity.
Real
True Narratives
- Benjamin Reiss, Wild Nights: How Taming Sleep Created Our Restless World (Basic Books, 2017). “A historical overview of man’s dogged attempts to master sleep.”
Technical and Analytical Readings
- Michael McGirr, Snooze: The Lost Art of Sleep (Penguin Books, 2017): “McGirr pursues his chosen subject in a Jesuitical spirit of holistic inquiry, contemplating sleep as it has been considered in literature, science, history and his own experience.”
- Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of sleep and Dreams (Scribner, 2017): “Walker is no dilettante. He presides over Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab, where he and his team, along with their peers at other institutions, have made significant strides over the last 20 years in understanding the restorative powers of sleep, and, correspondingly, the dire consequences of not getting enough of it.”
- Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less (Basic Books, 2016): “His central thesis is that rest not only makes us more productive and more creative, but also makes our lives ‘richer and more fulfilling.’ But not all rest is created equal — it’s not just about not-working.”
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
Poetry
O soft embalmer of the still midnight,
Shutting, with careful fingers and benign,
Our gloom-pleas'd eyes, embower'd from the light,
Enshaded in forgetfulness divine:
O soothest Sleep! if so it please thee, close
In midst of this thine hymn my willing eyes,
Or wait the "Amen," ere thy poppy throws
Around my bed its lulling charities.
Then save me, or the passed day will shine
Upon my pillow, breeding many woes,—
Save me from curious Conscience, that still lords
Its strength for darkness, burrowing like a mole;
Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards,
And seal the hushed Casket of my Soul.
[John Keats, “To Sleep”]
If sleep is truce, as it is sometimes said, a pure time for the mind to rest and heal, why, when they suddenly wake you, do you feel that they have stolen everything you had? Why is it so sad to be awake at dawn? It strips us of a gift so strange, so deep, it can be remembered only in half-sleep, moments of drowsiness that gild and adorn. The waking mind with dreams, which may well be but broken images of the night’s treasure, a timeless world that has no name or measure and breaks up in the mirrors of the day. Who will you be tonight, in the dark thrall of sleep, when you have slipped across its wall?
[Jorge Luis Borges, “Sleep”]
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Hawaii is a great place to vacation, and to live. Its music reflects calm ocean waves on a sandy beach. Its musical specialty is the slack key guitar. “Slack-key guitar developed in the Hawaiian Islands during the nineteenth century sometime after the introduction of guitars by European sailors and Latin American cattlemen. As guitars found their way into the hands of Hawaiians unaware of established European tunings and playing styles, they integrated the acoustic instrument into their already rich musical tradition.” “For a few generations (late 1800s through mid 1900s) much of Hawaiian traditions were ‘frowned upon’ by the emerging ‘ruling class’ of foreigners. . . It was so personal that a father might come off the ranch, grab his guitar, sit on his lanai (porch) and play Kī Hō’alu for himself, to relax, soothe his nerves, and express his love for his environment . . .” “Many Hawaiian songs and slack key guitar pieces reflect themes like stories of the past and present and people’s lives. But it is the tropical surroundings of Hawai’i, with its oceans, volcanoes and mountains, waterfalls, forests, plants and animals, that provide the deepest source of inspiration for Hawaiian music.” People who listen to slack key guitar playing “feel like they have been transported to the islands, being able to relax . . .” Among the great slack key artists are:
- Raymond (Ray) Kāne, with his playlists;
- Dennis Kamakahi, with his playlists;
- Sol Hoopii, with his playlists;
- Keola Beamer, with his playlists;
- King Bennie Nawahi, with a compilation of tunes (try not to smile, listening to this);
- Ozzie Kotani, with his playlists;
- Gabby Pahinui, with his playlists;
- Dennis Kamakahi, with his playlists;
- George Kahomoku, Jr., with his playlists;
- George Kuo, with his albums.
Aaron Larget-Caplan, New Lullaby Project has been described as "attentive peacefulness":
- Volume 1: “New Lullaby” (2009) (53’)
- Volume 2: “Nights Transfigured” (2020) (60’)
- Volume 3: “Drifting” (2021) (57’)
Albums:
- Steven Halpern, “Relax into Sleep at the Speed of Sound” (2021) (72’)
- Steven Halpern, “Effortless Relaxation” (2014) (76’)
- Steven Halpern, “Relaxation Suite” (2008) (75’)
- Liquid Mind II, “Slow World” (1995) (59’)
- Liquid Mind VIII, “Sleep” (2006) (56’)
- Liquid Mind XI, “Deep Sleep” (2016) (64’)
- “Deep Lucid Dreaming Sleep Music” (480’)
- Frank Kimbrough, “Play” (2006) (53’) “emphasizes layers of lush harmony and ethereal impressions.”
- Bruce O’Neil conducting Orchestra of the Swan, “Vivaldi Sleep” (2021) (45’), “with diverse guest artists from the world of jazz, folk and rock”
Compositions:
- Zdeněk Fibich, At Twilight (Am Abend), Op. 39, H. 306 (1893) (approx. 16’) (list of recorded performances)
Music: songs and other short pieces
- Lou Reed, “Perfect Day” (lyrics)
- Franz Schubert (composer), “Die Nacht” (The Night), D. 358 (1816) (lyrics)
- Franz Schubert, “Wandrer’s Nachtlied II” (Wayfarer’s Night Song II), Op. 96, No. 3, D. 768 (lyrics)
- Arnold Bax (composer), Lullaby (Berceuse)
Visual Arts
- Kazimir Malevich, High Society in Top Hats Relaxing (1908)
- Theo van Rysselberghe, In the Shade of the Pines (1905)
- Mary Cassatt, Summertime (1894)
- Paul Gaugin, Siesta (1892-94)
- Edgar Degas, Dancers Relaxing (1885)
- Paul Cezanne, Couples Relaxing by a Pond (1875)
- Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 94 Degrees in the Shade (1876)
- Claude Monet, Relaxing in the Garden, Argenteuil (1876)
- Camille Pissarro, Landscape with Strollers Relaxing under the Trees (1872)
- Camille Corot, Rest in the Water Meadows (1865)
- Francisco de Goya, Sleep (c. 1800)
