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Deep Rest isn't discussed often enough in the workplace, even today. Promoting rest, recovery, and more meaningful breaks at work is vital because it improves productivity, focus, creativity, enthusiasm, and employee well-being.
Deep rest is a vital therapeutic process that includes yoga poses, conscious breathing, etc., for everyone. It is a body, mind, and soul well-being and restoration process.
Modern lifestyle choices has minimized the concept of mindful living. But, workplaces must promote mindfulness and help employees adopt holistic wellness practices.
A recent Wall Street Journal interview with Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, got down to brass tacks on productivity, discussing weekend Peloton workouts, having Google employees come into the office three days a week, making compromises when it comes to meeting daily goals, and a meditation technique known as non-sleep deep rest (NSDR).
When you rest, you catch your breath and it holds you up, like water wings…
– Anne Lamott
Taking deep will give employees positivity in their bodies, breath, minds, intellect, memory, and ego, thus allowing them to produce better results at work.
Key Takeaways
- Deep rest is a full-system reset, not laziness. It targets body, breath, mind, intellect, and memory — all need to be realigned, not just physical fatigue.
- Stress drives 90% of disease. Sindhujaa cites this as the health case for rest: when you're depleted, your body will eventually refuse you.
- "Time-bending" is real. She has seen engineers ship code in a day that would normally take a week, with fewer bugs — because their mind is in peak performance mode.
- NSDR ranges from 2 minutes to an hour. Yoga nidra, shavasana, guided meditation — anything that lets you relax as fully as possible counts. Simplicity is the point.
- Organizations must measure output, not hours. Real weekends (no pings), breaks without guilt, and judging work by results — not time at the desk.
In Sindhujaa's Words
On why rest matters
Stillness is the doorway to wisdom. You want to be wiser, rest. You want the answers, rest. You want to be more creative, rest.
Rest is the bridge between where you are and where you want to be. It is metamorphosis.
Sleep is the greatest healer. This is when the body and mind get to completely regenerate.
On rest at work
Deep, meaningful rest doesn't lower productivity — it boosts it. I've seen people do two days' worth of work in two hours when their minds and hearts are performing at optimal levels.
We should not mix up rest with distraction. We live in an age where the grind is glorified.
Allow people to be human instead of machines. Look at a person's work — is it satisfactory, are targets being met? Then hours worked and breaks taken shouldn't really matter.
About The Speaker
Sindhujaa is a Holistic Wellness Practitioner licensed in Integrative Health and Alternative Medicine (Lifestyle Medicine). A vibrant thought-leader in women's health and holistic empowerment, she's a columnist and featured wellness expert for The Times of India and Economic Times, Entrepreneur magazine, Business World magazine, The Pioneer and others. She's been a mentor for Google's '500 women entrepreneurs' program with Sheroes, and on the mentor circle for platforms like Shenomics. Additionally, she's passionate about social welfare, and heads Public Relations for The/Nudge Institute - an NGO that works for poverty alleviation and social entrepreneurship.
Connect with her on LinkedIN.
Show Notes
(01:10) What is deep rest?
(02:37) Why do you think deep rest is a necessity?
(05:49) What are the mental and physical health benefits of deep rest at work?
(08:08) What are sleep and non sleep deep rest? What is the ideal amount of time to take a deep rest?
(14:33) Taking more breaks / rest periods at work may not be something that several organizations look at enthusiastically. How would you break the stereotype of taking rest or relaxing at the workplace?
(18:08) What would you suggest to our listeners ?
