Why do we need a rest day in esports?

Are you getting enough rest?

Many gamers practice & play 5-6 days a week with a pro schedule.

Then comes around that coveted day-off & I ask "how was it? what did you do?" --> "Oh, I just played".

While it's fine to play for fun on your day-off, it cannot be the only thing you do.

You gotta give your body/mind a rest. Get up out of that chair, see friends/family, go outside, enjoy hobbies, stretch out, see nature, watch a movie in another room, be a person in the world.

A day off is about:

📍Giving your body the physical rest it needs (muscles, joints, posture)

📍Work/life balance. Quality time to do something outside of gaming, to not get too attached/triggered & take things personally, because it's your only source of enjoyment & fulfillment

📍Rewiring your nervous system to relax, calm & release old nerves. Helps recalibrate reactions & emotions.

📍Giving your body a chance to balance out hormones like stress, cortisol, adrenaline. Get it out of survival mode & have a balance of rest/action - active/passive states.

📍Overall allowing wellness & health for your body, slowing down & BEING instead of just DOING.

📍Get caught-up with life, responsibilities, to-do lists, passions, dreams, relationships, self-care, etc. Being a person 1st, player 2nd.

📍Prevent the "same-old same-old" autopiloting practice.

Take a MENTAL break from the repetitive thoughts & actions that you do all week by introducing something fresh & different into your psyche in order to properly reset & de-stress. Use your day off to practice being present.

If you don’t allow yourself to rest:

✴️Sleep becomes more difficult

✴️Muscles frequently tighten & cramp

✴️Feeling fatigued & emotionally drained

✴️Burnout build up

✴️Disappearing from your own life

Simply put, you can't stay at the top of your game if you are stressed out.

Quality rest:

➕Restful sleep

➕Get up from your gaming chair & actually go do something else, non gaming related

➕Eat well, get your nutrients, replenish with water

➕Slow down & make sure you have non-doing time, like sitting in the park/garden, having a smoothie on the porch

➕Go for a walk / try a class out of passion to fuel your energy / do a fun activity / see friends & family / meet new people

➕Mentally relax & detoxify, you can use breathing exercises, meditation, journaling, dancing, anything to de-compress for a day

➕Prior to even getting to your full rest day - don't allow daily stress & emotional burdens to drain your energy.

Make adjustments to what you can control day-to-day so it's fueling you not draining you (things you chose to do, think, the people you're with, physiology, etc.)