The five types of rest every entrepreneur needs go far beyond sleep, and if you’re running on empty despite a full night’s rest, this is why.
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Correction note for this episode:
Dr. Saundra Dalten-Smith’s book outlines seven types of rest, not eight!
I left a corporate job that felt like it was slowly sucking the life out of me, and within a year of starting my own business, I had somehow built myself another one just like it.
If you’re an entrepreneur who is tired in a way that sleep doesn’t touch, you are not doing anything wrong. You’re what I call chronically capable. Someone who shows up, gets the work done, takes care of everyone else, and quietly runs herself into the ground doing it.
This is the first episode in a new series on rest, and it starts with the one thing I wish someone had told me so long ago. Rest is not a reward you earn after the work is done. It’s what makes the work possible in the first place.
Why I Had to Learn Rest the Hard Way
I left my last corporate job exhausted. I was working ten and twelve hour days, often six days a week, and no matter how much I put in, I could never get ahead. The stress got to the point where it started affecting my physical and mental health, and it became one of the catalysts that pushed me toward entrepreneurship.
I thought a flexible schedule would fix it.
How I Recreated the Same Job Inside My Own Business
It didn’t take long for me to realize I had replicated that same stressful environment inside my own business. I set up my office in my kitchen, right next to the dishes, with no real boundary between work and the rest of my life. I was working long hours again, and I started to feel exhausted all over again, this time as a business owner instead of an employee.
That’s the trap. You can leave the job and still bring the job with you. Because the habits you learned and the wiring you developed didn’t change, just the address where you work.
You Are the Most Important Asset in Your Business
Your website is an asset. Your email list is an asset. Your savings and the systems you’ve built are assets you protect and nurture. You are an asset too, and I’d argue you’re the most important one you have.
Too often our own care lands at the bottom of the list instead of the top. Rest is not something you do once everything else is checked off. It’s an action step, not an afterthought, and it deserves a place in your schedule the same way a client call or a launch deadline does.
The Five Types of Rest for Entrepreneurs
Most of us think rest means sleep, and only sleep. It doesn’t. Inspired by Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith’s work in her book Sacred Rest, I’ve simplified rest down to five categories that show up differently depending on the season of business you’re in:
- Mental rest, for the exhaustion that comes from constant decision-making and information overload.
- Emotional rest, for carrying other people’s needs alongside your own.
- Spiritual rest, for feeling disconnected from purpose or meaning in the work.
- Physical rest, for the body’s need to recover, separate from sleep alone.
- Rest from work, for the simple act of stepping away without guilt.
One of my favorite lines on this comes from the artist Banksy: “Learn to work from rest, not quit.” That’s the whole shift. Not quitting on your business, but working from a fuller place instead of an empty one.
Why More Sleep Won’t Fix Entrepreneur Burnout
Most of us carry a sleep deficit, but more sleep alone rarely solves the exhaustion entrepreneurs feel. That’s because the depletion usually isn’t just physical. It can be mental, emotional, or spiritual, and each one needs a different kind of refilling.
Every Friday, I ask the women in my Gentle Business Mastermind how they’re planning to rest that weekend. More than once, someone has told me that question caught them off guard, because their to-do list was full of appointments and events, and rest never made the list at all.
That’s exactly why this podcast is called Doing Business Gently. Rest is not a luxury here. It’s a necessity, and treating it that way is what actually changes how sustainable your business feels.
Dig Deeper: What the Research Says About Entrepreneur Burnout
Everything above reflects what I shared in this episode. The section below adds outside research and context that goes beyond the transcript, for anyone who wants the data behind the experience.
Entrepreneur burnout is not just a feeling, it’s a documented pattern. Dr. Michael Freeman’s research at the University of California, San Francisco found that 72% of entrepreneurs are affected by a mental health condition, directly or indirectly, compared to lower rates in the general working population
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith’s own framework, laid out in her book Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity, identifies seven types of rest rather than five: physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, sensory, social, and creative. I’ve simplified her seven down to the five categories that show up most for the entrepreneurs I coach, so if you want the fuller clinical picture, her book is the place to go.
FAQs: Rest for Entrepreneurs
What are the five types of rest entrepreneurs need?
Mental, emotional, spiritual, physical, and rest from work. Each addresses a different kind of depletion, and most entrepreneurs are only aware of the physical one.
Why doesn’t sleep fix entrepreneur burnout?
Sleep only restores physical rest. If your exhaustion is mental, emotional, or spiritual, more sleep won’t touch it, which is why burnout can persist even after a full night’s rest.
How do I know what type of rest I need?
Notice where you feel most depleted first: your mind, your emotions, your sense of purpose, or your body. A short self-assessment, like the free quiz at itstartswithrest.com/quiz, can help narrow it down quickly.
Is rest really a business strategy, or just self-care?
Both. You are the core operator of your business, which makes your capacity a business asset. Treating rest as an action step, not an afterthought, protects that asset the same way you’d protect any other.
Bringing It Back to Your Business
Rest isn’t the thing you get to once the to-do list is empty. It’s the thing that makes a simple, sustainable, gentle business possible in the first place, and it starts with figuring out which type you’re actually missing.
Take the Free Quiz – What Type of Rest Do You Need?
Find out where you are feeling the most depleted right now
at
ItStartsWithRest.com/quiz.
You will receive a personalized report along with a simple practice you can start using today.
Rest Series: Rest for the Chronically Capable Entrepreneur
- Episode 109: Rest Isn’t a Luxury, It’s a Business Strategy (the 5 types you’re missing)
- Episode 110: You’re not lazy, you’re mentally maxed out
- Episode 111: Why You Need Emotional Rest (and What It Feels Like When You Don’t Get It)
- Episode 112: You Are the Asset and Physical Rest is How You Protect it
- Episode 113: Spiritual Rest: You Can Do Everything Right and Still Feel Disconnected
- Episode 114: Selah Sessions: Permission to Rest for the Chronically Capable Entrepreneur
Marta Goertzen is a Gentle Business Coach and founder of Selah Studios, host of the Doing Business Gently podcast. She helps Christian women entrepreneurs over 50 rediscover who they’ve become, realign their business to match, and fall in love with their work again, gently, at their pace, without starting over. As an avid photographer and lover of the outdoors, she daily explores the trails and beaches of the South Central Oregon Coast with her dog Mochi in tow. Take the free Business Alignment Audit as your gentle first step, a way to pause, get honest, and see clearly where you and your business are right now: https://SelahStudios.co/alignmentaudit