TED talk assignment!

Topic:” How rest can make you better at your job”

Date of recording: 17. October 2023.

Name of presenter: Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

Link of video: https://youtu.be/rXxUCeRVma4?si=1RSZ_8OTD--_ypdm

In this video TED talk, Alex Soojung-Kim Pang analyzes and discusses the imposed idea of the new world
and modern living in which a large amount of work and only work is emphasized to make a certain
success. Is speed and time spent in work the only way to achieve certain success, and is there an
alternative to that? Have we as people forgotten the importance of rest and sleep and have we
absolutely accepted a fast way of life? A professional futurist with a PhD in the history of science and
rich experience in science, comments on this topic based on psychological and sociological research and
comments by prominent scientists. He focused his presentation on thinking and determining what rest is
and which rest is actually more effective, how to include a period for adequate rest in the daily routine
and how to make rest social.

Recent research in neuroscience and psychology has shown that rest strengthens our brains, enhances
our learning and stimulates our creativity. He mentions that Darwin practiced and emphatically
emphasized the importance of active rest and knew that work and rest are not enemies of each other,
but that they are actually mutually supportive and that they are, conditionally speaking, partners. Every
vacation is not really a vacation, it is important to know when our body actually rests best. As the
lecturer states, the solution is quality and adequate sleep (as psychology teaches us) and active rest.
Sometimes we actually think we are resting, but lying on the couch in front of the screen is not the best
solution. Active vacation includes exercises, hobbies and walking because these recharge our mental
and physical batteries more effectively. One interesting quote or statement that I liked is when Jung says
"just as athletes, singers and Buddhist monks use breathing, to run faster, project their voices and calm
their minds, we can use rest to boost our creativity and recovery."This sentence is very interesting to me
because it emphasizes the importance of breathing, which I experienced very often through my own
experiences in football, music, peace building and religion and felt how useful and important it is, but at
the same time very neglected and forgotten in society. Further, the lecturer mentions how to introduce
rest into the daily routine, and some of the ways are that if we have flexible working hours to focus on
work, but active work of 4-5 hours, to forget about everything else and try to be as productive as
possible. would have more time to rest. It will give your creative subconscious a chance to work on
unsolved problems while you recover and generate insights and aha moments that can turn good ideas
into breakthroughs. So it is important to embrace an activity that makes you feel alive and involved in
the world. It will give you new experiences and the same pleasures and rewards as work at its best.
Furthermore, the world of work is not designed for rest and we need to find a way to use it. The
lecturer's recommendation is to make rest social, which means that some of the options are to start
work earlier and invite colleagues for a walk or prepare morning tea or a meal early with your partner.

To sum up, this is not easy for busy people to rest. It requires developing new practices and including
them to become habits. The speaker conveyed it wonderfully, briefly and very clearly for everyone who
listens. If I take into account Pang's history of education, work and teaching, his method and idea is for
me the closest to the branch of psychology whose name is business psychology. I would like to hear
more from him about how teamwork affects the mental state of employees and whether it improves
work efficiency. I also lack research that shows the effects of people with healthy sleeping habits and
quality rest methods compared to those who do not practice and do not encourage it, I believe that it
would give additional impact and be memorized in the long term memory.

To sum up, this is not easy for busy people to rest. It requires developing new practices and including
them to become habits.