We are born. We study. We work. We die. Pessimistic? Yes. Accurate? Also yes.
I’ve recently been rudely awakened to this reality and the idea that this very well could be the cycle in which I live and die in–which is a very depressing thought for someone just entering their independence. Call me crazy, but I don’t want to work for a system that will continuously sabotage me and my community until I die. I don’t want to be exhausted for the rest of my life. I don’t want to have “drinks after work” just to cope. I don’t want to come home and spend my nights staring at a flickering screen because my mind is too tired to comprehend much else. I don’t want to worry about bills because, despite working 40 plus hours a week, I still have to choose between food and rent. I don’t want to miss the celebrations, ceremonies, and important moments in the lives of my family and friends because I have a deadline.
This is not what I was made for. This is not what any of us were made for.
The human mind and body was made for so much more than crunching numbers, time sheets, and meetings. We are complex and beautiful beings who create innovation and beauty with each breath. We know pain and joy like no other creature on earth and we have an awareness and understanding of self that has allowed us to build and break empires. What other creature can you point to and say that they are ugly, wretched, malicious, selfish and horrible, a scourge on the earth and somehow also breathtaking, powerful, innovative, kind and empathetic beyond reason, stubborn, and that they possess the ability to love without condition and without fault? How many beings have that duality and that complexity? And they tell us we are built for a life of routine, for a system that has used and abused our bodies for centuries all in the name of a “progress” that benefits only a few. That our complexity can only exist in conformity. And that this conformity is the only pathway to success. To safety. To a life well-lived.
I cannot accept that.
And neither can Tricia Hersey, founder of the Nap Ministry and creator of the “rest is resistance” framework. Through her work, Hersey has created a global movement that uses rest as a form of rebellion. Founded in 2016, the Nap Ministry sees rest–naps in particular–as a “radical tool for community healing” and sees it as a form of resistance in the work of social and racial justice.
The basic principles of the movement and its framework are as follows. The society in which we live has been built by forced labor, grueling work, and on the backs of marginalized communities–particularly communities of color. By refusing to participate in this cycle of labor that continues to exploit and target marginalized communities through the act of deep, nurturing rest, you are resisting. By refusing to fall victim to the rat race, by demanding you are fully rested and that you are given the time to achieve this, you are undoing thousands of years of harmful and toxic labor practices. You are refusing to allow the powers at be to exploit you and your community for their own personal gain as they have done for thousands of years.
This work for rest is targeted at marginalized groups: women, communities of color, lower class individuals. All groups that have historically been exploited for their labor so that others can gain wealth, power, and respect (think slavery, wage gaps, lack of labor laws and protections, etc). To protect these communities and to ensure they are given the time and space to rest and heal, Hersey offers lectures, workshops, coaching, and schooling. She aims to educate us on how to effectively rest, how to create space for it, and how to listen to our bodies and minds to ensure that we get the most efficient self-care for our individual self. Through her work, she hopes to undo the harmful mentality and effects of grind culture and liberate her community from its oppressive nature.
Rest is difficult. We often feel an immense amount of guilt when we stop to close our eyes, to relax our bodies, and to take a moment for ourselves. This is because it has been drilled into us that we were not meant to rest. The truly successful and happy individuals are consistently driven, constantly moving, growing and achieving. That the only way to succeed is to work, work, work, and then, if we work enough, we will gain the luxury of rest. Rest is a reward in our minds. An end goal, something only the truly deserving can earn.
This is untrue, for two reasons. One, from a social justice perspective, many marginalized communities work their whole lives but find no success because the system in which they are working is built to actively prevent them from advancing while ensuring that their labor is used to help the advancement of others. They cannot achieve “rest” not because they do not work for it but because the system will not let them. And two, the human body and mind is weak. We are fragile little beings who succumb easily to exhaustion when we fail to nurture ourselves. When we fail to sleep, eat, drink, and rest, we feel it. We are not meant to push past those limits, to “hit the grind” and ignore our basic instincts. We are built to rest and relax. Our body signals us when we need it and it is dangerous that ignoring these signals has become a sign of strength. We must rest. And we must rest deeply. Or we will burn out.
I refuse to work for a system that tells me otherwise, that demands I give my life, my time, and my well-being so that in return I might receive a sliver of “success.” I choose rest. I choose to resist with my rest. I choose to demand my time and energy back. And I hope you do too. They have exploited us for so long… they have used and abused us and our ancestors. And they continue to do so. So I call to all our communities, especially our communities of color who have felt the most debilitating and devastating impacts of this grind, choose rest. Reclaim rest. Resist with rest. For you, for your community, for your past, and for your future.