“Rest is not some cute lil luxury item you grant to yourself as an extra treat after you’ve worked like a machine and are now burned out. Rest is our path to liberation. A portal for healing. A human right.” – The Nap Ministry
You haven’t felt sleep until you’ve had a really true nap for yourself. Not one of those okay, I’m gonna take 20 minutes to nap and wake back up for work. Not the systematic ones where your mind needs to wake up at a certain time almost robotically. Because you are not really feeling it in its 3D-like form since you’re just trying to take the extra rest and thinking about all the work you gotta do from it. But real rest is a form of soul care. No lies are told here. When you are really tired and close your eyes or you just close your eyes and think, I’ll take a nap. Let yourself fall into it and really enjoy it. From there your mind will take the reins, make sure you feel relaxed and are able to wake up when you need to. You think it sounds systematic but no, the experience is completely different from a forced nap. This way, you are also more satisfied in your day to day lifestyle and have a lot more energy to do work with enthusiasm. Multiple naps are pretty good too. They are self care when handled as self care.
“your obsession with productivity as a function of your worth is preventing you from tending to your soul. naps are soul care.” – The Nap Ministry
I know that I just recently discovered this. Naturally, I am a sleepy person but I tend to restrict myself from the sleep I need. I fully admit I used to take systematic naps when necessary. As a person with naturally a lot of work on her hands, I want to always put in more time in my work rather than sleep. But don’t get me wrong, I’ve always appreciated sleep and understood its importance but never have I seen naps especially as a form of something for me rather than me needing energy during a burnout. But one day, I was like you know what, why don’t I just take a couple of naps, wake up whenever I do, feel good, and do work as I go. So I did just that. It feels so good, like you’re taking a nice warm bath on your day off but 10 times more the contentment. Trust me, you’ll feel it when you feel it. I just thought, hold up, why haven’t I done this before? Why have I always stressed and just taken a nap to just ‘reenergize’ and I realize its how we are as a society. We work really hard till we make it and we’re told, hey 7 hours of sleep is good, most people get 5 hours give or take, and waking up earlier is better, and naps no more than 20 minutes are good for you. Why have a constraint? Why do we need to feel guilty in just enjoying a nap and then enthusiastically fulfilling our work? People don’t know this, but work feels so much better after the experience. Our culture to keep working and hustling is what’s stopping us from true rest.
“Naps are time travel. You can recieve an inspired message while resting. It’s a third space that facilitates deep healing. It makes sense why the toxic systems don’t want you tapping into this sacred place. This is why we resist.” – The Nap Ministry
It’s all about our intentions when we nap, don’t restrict yourself even when you are sleeping. Let go, feel it all the way. This is so important and really is soul care and self care when you just put it all on hold and release. It’s almost ethereal. So I was going on Instagram the next day wondering if there are people that discovered the same thing I did. I found this page called the @the napministry. They are amazing advocates for resting for self care. Do check them out, their quotes couldn’t be any truer. Happy resting to you!