Play...Pause...Stop for the Week. Frontiers Friday #151 ⭕️

Notes from a past self to an ignorant present self on the period to rest and recover, and prevent "Karoshi."

My body is saying, “Stop.”

I’m losing my voice, and a cough is developing. (Maybe I talk too much).

Yet, in some ways, I find myself fighting to press the appropriate button.

Three years ago, I wrote this article, “We don’t know how to rest.” Sometimes the past self has little nudges for the ignorant present self.

I’m looking back at my writings on this topic of Rest. I’m letting these sections reverberate into the present:

The Japanese have a word for un-rest—when you overwork yourself to death, literally—they call it Karoshi.

Rest need not be an instrumental reason to take a break (“I’d be more productive, or more focused, etc.”). Rest has goodness in and of itself, which is a true testament of its value and worth.

Stress is not the problem; a lack of recovery is.

Oh, here’s another related one, pertaining to deliberate practice:

Here’s a number that doesn’t get talked a lot about: 60 hours. This is the amount of time the top violinists spent each week resting, compared to the average performers of 54.6hrs/wk.

Not only did the top violinists slept more each night compared to the average violinists (8.6hrs vs 7.8hrs), they also took more snoozes in the afternoon. (I call this “horizontal meditation”).

Anyway, in the coming weeks, I’m hoping to get back to the other areas mentioned in the Maps of Knowledge article.

It is Spring in this part of the world. I’m going get some sun, empty my mind, and rest a little, before picking up the kids for after school swimming. (Note: The topic of Parenting is coming up in Frontiers Fridays, so stay tuned!)

Meanwhile, some Notice Board announcements.

Notice Board

1. I appreciate spending a day with the Counselling Services team at University of Queensland (UQ) for virtual training. I hope we get to meet in person the next time.

2. Thanks to Spencer Greenberg for hosting me on his podcast, Clearer Thinking (Hat Tip to Jeremy Stevenson for setting this up). His questions are incisive and wicked smart.
   I hadn’t realised that I’ve heard about Greenberg’s work a few years ago. I was searching in my Obsidian Vault for my notes for the interview, and when I typed his name, I came across some notes I’ve made when he was on David McRaney’s podcast You’re Not So Smart.
   Do check out Greenberg’s back catalogue of interviews, as well as his in-depth website, Clearer Thinking, which offers a voluminous amount of heuristics to help you make better decisions and reduce cognitive biases.

3. I want to publicly thank Guido Rocca for translating The First Kiss to Italian. I owe Guido an apology as well, as we have had protracted delays in getting this ready for print. I commit to get this translated version out in due time.

4. Finally, if you are a clinical supervisor, 3 more weeks before we kick off the 14th Cohort of the Reigniting Clinical Supervision (RCS) online training.
   For more details, see this Substack Note (Don’t miss the discount code inside):

   Here is a Visual Map of the what’s installed in Reigniting Clinical Supervision (RCS). It’s practical, but it also goes deep into the weeds.

Warm Welcome to New Folks on Frontiers of Psychotherapist Development (FPD)

Thanks to those who have introduced themselves so far. I really appreciate hearing from you. This is one of the ways for an introvert like me to socialise.

If you are new here, I just want to say a big hello to you and would love to hear from you. Tell me a bit about you and where you are from. Drop me an email info@darylchow.com

Click here to see more resources about Frontiers of Psychotherapist Development and Frontiers Friday.

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Daryl Chow Ph.D. is the author of The First Kiss, co-author of Better Results, and The Write to Recovery, Creating Impact, and the new book The Field Guide to Better Results .