reframing rest
I’ve gone past my self-proclaimed “due date” I set to write these reflections, and I’m not surprised or worried about it, as I imagine y’all aren’t either lol. I always slow down during winter (biologically and intentionally), and there’s plenty on my plate.
What I have been doing a lot of is reading, and at long last I’ve delved into artist and theologian Tricia Hersey’s book Rest is Resistance. Tricia Hersey is the founder of The Nap Ministry, described beautifully on their website as:
The originators of the ‘rest as resistance’ and ‘rest as reparations’ frameworks, and create sacred spaces where the liberatory, restorative, and disruptive power of rest can take hold. Our work is seeded within the soils of Black radical thought, somatics, Afrofuturism, womanism, and liberation theology, and is a guide for how to collectively deprogram, decolonize, and unravel ourselves from the wreckage of capitalism and white supremacy. We believe our bodies are portals. They are sites of liberation, knowledge, and invention that are waiting to be reclaimed and awakened by the beautiful interruptions of brutal systems that sleep and dreaming provide.
There is no societal incentive to rest; no one will give you rest. Yet rest is the only way we can continue protesting, providing community care, self care, and reimagining what is possible. Hersey writes, “This is an outlier investigation. A counternarrative. It is trust work. It is healing work. It is decolonizing work. It is a subculture holding space for the blossoming of a resistance.”
She repeats throughout the book, “Rest like your life depends on it. Because it does.”
Enough said. To support your rest during what is arguably the most intense capitalistic and busy time of the year for many, I want to share a list of what rest can look like, also from Rest is Resistance. Racial capitalism distorts our perception of what counts as rest, so sharing examples and modeling rest for each other is essential. If you want to add your rest practices to the list, I would love to hear from y’all!
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.
May you rest,
Katie