This is the kind of rest changemakers need
When was the last time you had an intentional rest?
Not sleeping at the end of a long day. Not staying in bed because you were ill. Not even a vacation that you booked because it was the only way for you to truly switch off from work.
But actual rest. That you took with intention, rather than by accident.
We live in a capitalist white supremacist patriarchal world that indoctrinates us into hustle and grind culture. We view rest as laziness. We see it as time wasted that could have been spent on being ‘productive’. We are suspicious of people who are consistently well-rested. We think ‘must be nice for them’. Or we feel angry that they are prioritising something that feels like a privilege.
We want to be rested. But our world is not set up to support resting as a norm. And because of that, we don’t know who we are if we’re not constantly ‘on’.
It sounds counter-intuitive, but the idea of rest can actually make us feel quite stressed out!
That’s why we have to do something about it.
Not just for ourselves personally, but for our societies as a whole. We have to prioritise our own rest, and help build a world where everybody can rest too.
Because it’s hard to build that world if we are hesitant to claim it for ourselves too.
It’s hard to support other people to have what we don’t feel we are allowed to have.
This week in Deepen, our group program for changemakers, we are observing an intentional rest week. This is a week with no calls, no tasks, and nothing to do except find ways to rest.
And by rest, I mean, cultivate a sense of restoration.
Resting can absolutely be taking naps. In fact, as someone who is self-employed and has control over my own calendar, I have a two-hour block in the middle of my days called ‘Rest’ that I often use for napping or just being in bed. (As someone who works both in the morning and late at night, an afternoon nap keeps me on an even energetic keel).
But naps are not the only way to rest. Some other things that I find restorative are:
Closing my eyes for a moment or two and breathing
A 5-10 minute self-reiki session
Sitting in my garden or in nature and just… listening
Stretching
Yin yoga and sound healing (a double class I attend every Saturday night)
Visiting a museum or the library with no aim in mind, just browsing
Reading a good book
Friday dates with my husband
Sunday family movie nights at home with our kids
Cancelling plans and taking a mental health day, or even week
Journalling, day-dreaming, colouring
Catching up with a good friend
Social media breaks
What’s restorative for me may not be for you, and vice versa. And resting does not have to involve spending money or taking up hours and hours of time.
It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. This binary thinking is what harms us in the first place.
Thinking that we have to find the perfect way to rest, or that we don’t ‘deserve’ rest unless we have really worked hard enough to ‘earn it’ is rooted in exploitative dominant culture.
We must be the opposite of that.
To be well, we must rest.
To live lovingly, we must rest.
To be effective change-makers, we must rest.
To build a better world without burning out… we must rest.
(By the way, can you guess what our upcoming book club selection is? It’s all about rest 🙂)
For now, I’d love to invite you to explore and share what intentional rest looks like for you.
What helps you to feel restored? What keeps you on even keel? What fills your cup and makes you feel rested? And what restful or restorative activities do you want to prioritise or intentionally bring into your life?
If you’re inspired by our rest week in Deepen, I invite you to book in your own rest week. May it be soothing to your nervous system, replenishing to your heart, and relaxing for your mind.
May you be rested.
To our healing + liberation,
Layla
