Rest!
We are not resting because we are still connecting to our rest in a capitalist, trendy, consumer-driven way. The way we have been trained under a capitalist system. Our work is not about a one-day-only event, where leaving your homes is necessary to rest in a fancy retreat center or hotel. This work is about a slow unraveling that will require our participation for our entire lives. It is a cultural shift, rooted in an embodiment lens.
This means that we must actively practice, engage, and push back against the dominant culture. We must snatch and integrate rest in the quiet, loud, mundane, and full moments of our lives daily. We must remain committed to building community and go into the deepest cracks to gather and care for anyone left behind. Treating each other and ourselves with care isn’t a luxury, but an absolute necessity if we’re going to thrive. Resting isn’t an afterthought, but a basic part of being human.
Who Is Resting For
Rest is for the weary, for the hard workers, for those trying to make a way, for those making a way yet still suffering from disconnection, for those wondering when they will be able to get a full night’s sleep, for those thinking they aren’t worthy enough to sleep and don’t deserve rest because they’ve been socialized to believe this, for the faith workers and those out on the front lines, to those raising children and trying to do what’s best, to the entrepreneur, to the unemployed, to the blue collar worker, to the white collar worker, to those brainwashed by a system that has taught you aren’t enough unless you produce. Rest is for all of us. A global movement for all to be able to tap back into our divinity. Rest is our divine right. It is not a luxury or privilege.
Rest is as natural as breathing and waking up. Rest is part of our nature. Resting is about getting people back to their truest selves.
Some Places To Begin
Detox from social media weekly, monthly, or more. Begin to heal the individual trauma you have experienced that makes it difficult for you to say no and maintain healthy boundaries. Start a daily practice in daydreaming. Accept that there is no quick fix, magic bullet, or instant change. Slowly accept you have been brainwashed. Your socialization in a capitalist culture makes this true. Begin to deprogram by accepting this truth.
Slow down. You are enough now. If you have to repeat this to yourself every day, do so. Begin to repair the way white supremacy and capitalism have wrecked your self-esteem and self-worth. Understand exhaustion is not productive. You are not resting to gain energy to be more productive and to do more. Listen more. Create systems of community care.
You are the expert of your body. Your body knows more than we give it space to share. Our body is its own technology. Reimagining rest is about more than naps. It’s an ethos of slowing down, connecting, and reimagining. The practice of rest is the way forward. The work
starts and ends with the power of people experiencing in their bodies what intentional, connected rest feels like. There are not enough words to explain to anyone what deep, tender rest feels like. Rest must be practiced daily until it becomes our foundation.
Resting Can Look Like
Closing your eyes for ten minutes. A longer shower in silence. Meditating on the couch for twenty minutes. Daydreaming by staring out of a window. Sipping warm tea before bed in the dark. Slow dancing with yourself to slow music. Experiencing a Sound Bath or other sound healing.
A Sun Salutation. A twenty-minute timed nap. Praying. Crafting a small altar for your home. A long, warm bath. Taking regular breaks from social media. Not immediately responding to texts and emails. Deep listening to a full music album. A meditative walk in nature. Knitting, crocheting, sewing, and quilting. Playing a musical instrument. Deep eye contact. Laughing intensely.
Resist!
Resistance is a spiritual practice and a practical map. We learn how to make a way by building as we go. We resist by crafting ease and invention. We resist by reclaiming autonomy and leisure. We remain flexible and ready to shapeshift as our bodies call out for rest. The main point of how to resist always goes back to the brilliance of the maroons of North America. Living and thriving within two worlds, they built safe spaces. Crafted an alternative place of freedom miles away from the plantations and sometimes right in its backyard in the deep bush, hidden in plain sight while tucked away.
“Maroons also lived in caverns. They were a natural refuge that offered more space and better protection than trees, as Josh of Richmond County, Georgia, found out. He first tried to live under a hollow trunk, but when a bear got the same idea, he had to find other accommodations: large caverns bordered his owner’s plantation and Josh appropriated one. George Womble of Valley, Georgia, knew a couple who stayed in a cavern near their plantation and raised their children there. Their cover was so good and they were so successful at eluding capture that they only reappeared after the Civil War.”1
How can you resist the constant pull of grind culture in your daily life? Are there moments of laser-focused connection you can give to connect your body and mind? Can you slow down more? Can you do less?
How do we resist the violent systems that are embedded into our entire culture? How do we actually rest? We do it by reimagination. We do it slowly with radical faith and a constant experimentation centered in resistance.
Because we are intimately aware of the engine driving a capitalist system, our guiding forces are resistance, imagination, reimagination, invention, flexibility, and subversion. Reimagining rest looks like so many things. The possibilities are endless and infinite. Rest looks like tapping in and listening to what your body and soul want. It’s extra time while bathing, even an extra ten minutes of concentrated silence. Rest is taking a leisurely walk and dancing. Rest is a tea ritual allowing you to meditate while breathing in each warm sip. Rest is not returning an email immediately and maintaining healthy boundaries. Rest is honoring the boundaries of those you engage with. Rejecting urgency. Rest is detoxing from social media. Rest is listening and healing from individual trauma. Rest is journaling so you can be a witness to your own inner knowing without the energy of others. Rest uplifts and boosts our Spirit, allowing us to know that we are enough, and the care of our souls deserves a role in our healing plans.