One surgeon takes his boat out onto a lake, screams until he can't scream anymore, and then cries. It is how he recovers from a job where patients die and he can't fall apart in front of his team. 

That is what emotional rest can look like for one person, and it is only one of seven types of rest that most of us have never thought to separate. Which raises this possibility: you might be resting effectively in one area while a completely different part of you runs on empty. 

In this episode, I sit down with Dr Saundra Dalton-Smith, the doctor behind the seven types of rest framework and author of Sacred Rest, to unpack what each type of rest actually is and how to tell which one you are missing. I share how I scored on her Rest Quiz, and we test the theory against my own life, from a joyful community singing night to nature walks with a friend. 

If you keep waking up tired after a decent night's sleep, this conversation will help you work out what is really missing. 

Saundra and I discuss: 

• The three-question morning energy check-in Saundra uses herself, and how some of her clients set an AI up to ask it for them 

• The seven types of rest 

• Why mental and emotional rest are the two areas where people score highest for depletion, and the gender pattern Saundra sees 

• The signs of a mental rest deficit 

• How suppressing emotions at work drains your energy, and what an emotional rest deficit can look like in everyday life 

• How one activity can restore several types of rest at once, from yoga to a phone-free dinner table 

• Saundra's annual rest retreat weekend with girlfriends 

• How mirror neurons help explain why some people leave you drained 

• Two simple sensory rest snacks you can do today, including one that involves your phone settings 

Key quotes 

"We don't recognize how much energy it takes to suppress emotions." 

"Creative rest at the very heart of it is the rest that helps to awaken awe and wonder inside of us." 

Connect with Dr Saundra Dalton-Smith on Instagram, LinkedIn and her website, take her rest quiz at restquiz.com, and check out her book Sacred Rest. 

More from How I Work 

If managing your energy and burnout is something you want to go deeper on, I have put together a Spotify playlist of my favourite How I Work episodes on exactly that. Listen to the playlist here. 

And if you enjoyed this episode, a great companion listen is my conversation with Shelley Johnson, where we go deep into the science-backed strategies from my book The Energy Game. We cover how to boost your energy in under five minutes, what actually counts as rest versus fake rest, and the protect strategies that stop your energy leaking in the first place. Listen to the episode here.