Rest as resistance.

Why are we so tired? Is rest a reward or a right?

A quick note to start with…

This dispatch is loaded with excellent recommendations that I’m dipping into in the lead-up to the festive season. I first published this on my blog in the aftermath of last Christmas and I’ve really enjoyed reconnecting with this theme over the past couple of weeks. I hope you do too.

In addition to the recos below, I’ve just been reading this article called, The Nectar of Rest, written by Jo Buick for Dumbo Feather.

A neat quote from the piece…

When we actively choose rest over productivity, urgency and competition, not only are we directly countering the mechanisms of capitalism, but we are also building our capacity to hold the complexity of this time.

So good. I recommend a read of that if you get a chance.

Ok… on with this slightly re-written post on rest as resistance…

Oh, and I know this is my first newsletter from this new platform, and I intend on writing every 2 weeks or so. But this time in 2 weeks I’ll be resting under a tree with a book or some sewing, watching my kids swim. So I’ll see you back here in January sometime. I hope you have a restful rest too.

Why are we so tired? Is rest a reward or a right? What drives our compulsion to maintain constant busyness? Is it capitalism? Consumerism? Colonialism? The carbon crisis? Comparison-itis? Or some other c-word?

As usual, I have more questions than answers. And I think I’ll spend my whole life unpacking, unlearning, and untangling the intergenerational rhetoric that says work equals worthiness and rest equals laziness. There’s a rather shouty voice in my head that is tenacious about all this. Shoosh already.

The concept of radical rest and rest as resistance has popped up a lot in my world recently - maybe the theme of rest naturally surfaces at the end of the calendar year, when everyone is pooped. Regardless, I’ve been tuning in and paying attention and rabbit-holing (is that a word?) into the idea that we need to just stop, take a breath, and rest.

Rethinking work

Media articles saying ‘Maybe I should just stop and enjoy my life’: how the pandemic is making us rethink work are everywhere right now, and they are dang enticing when things feel overwhelming.

While work has the incredible potential to be fulfilling and take you where your heart leads you… our energy is finite and rest is essential.

For me, freelance life can get unstructured and boundaryless at times, so I’m working on ways to compartmentalise, prioritise and create some space.

But ‘tis the season of boundary-onslaught. Where FOMO and FODO (Fear Of Disappointing Others) crash headlong into our need for recuperation. But hold the course, folks. Tough decisions and saying no can offer an opportunity to reset so we can show up in the new year to do our work in the world all the better for some rest.

Radical rest

Now, this really gets under my skin…

The systems, structures, and cultural norms that are devastating the planet are the very same that say we’re not to rest.. we must keep working like machines. We are trying to fight and/or fix those systems while living in the mindset of those systems.

That mindset is pushing us to burn out. Leaving us with no space to wander, wonder and rest - all super important things to be doing if we are to imagine and build a fabulous new future.

I've heard the term Radical Rest a few times lately, and it sings to me. I've been bandying it about liberally. It counters the dominant idea that we need to do more, be more, be productive, and/or sleep when we're dead. No thanks. Rest is radical - let's do more of that.

How to slow down time

I’m starting the understand the irony that slowing down and resting actually makes time feel like it’s passing more slowly. Not that resting is a massive waste of time. When we are going flat-chat, time speeds by and we feel like we have less of it, but when we stop fretting about the to-do list and stop, time feels more abundant.

And with abundant time we have more freedom to think, reset, and make a slight course correction here and there - that can only be a good thing for each of us individually, collectively, and for the planet, can’t it?

And if nothing else - pausing creates an opportunity for spontaneity and play. As Robert Poynton says in Do Pause, if we work hard to make everything happen according to the plan - we’ll get exactly what we expected. But imagine getting something better.

All rabbit holes lead to rest

Ok - here’s a rundown of a few rest-related reads and listens that I’ve soaked up recently. There are so many ways to think about the relationship between work and rest. From breaking up with the idea of #inboxzero - it’s not possible to be finished, to a deep dive into capitalism and white supremacy’s knack for controlling our feelings of self-worth.

• I've been down another Do Book rabbit hole. This time it was Do Pause: You are not a To-Do list by Robert Poynton. A perfectly timed read as I come into a new year with thoughts about productivity, capitalism, and burnout swirling around my head.

• To dive deeper into those thoughts about pausing and rest, I listened to a rebroadcast of the For the Wild podcast with Tricia Hersey on Rest as Resistance. 'Capitalism and white supremacy have tricked us into believing that our self-worth is tied to our productivity. Tricia shares with us the revolutionary power of rest.'

• Another superb listen was the On Being podcast with Oliver Burkeman, called 'Time Management for Mortals'. He talks about all things time and busyness. I particularly like his thoughts on how the 'decks' will never be cleared - we need to surrender to that. It's a chat full of liberating ideas. 

• I also noticed that @earthrise.studio posted about 7 books on rest and disconnection - I've saved that for checking out later.

• One final source of inspo to help us take some time off work is here - I implore you to watch, kids know this stuff better than us.

The day will never arrive when you finally have everything under control—when the flood of emails has been contained; when your to-do lists have stopped getting longer; when you’re meeting all your obligations at work and in your home life; when nobody’s angry with you for missing a deadline or dropping the ball; and when the fully optimized person you’ve become can turn, at long last, to the things life is really supposed to be about. Let’s start by admitting defeat: none of this is ever going to happen.

― Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

And breathe in. And breathe out.

Here’s to less frazzle, and more deep rest when we need it, not when we think we deserve it. More 20-min naps, more slow wanders, more of doing not much at all.

Damn good links

Here are the damn good links mentioned in this post - there are many more to nourish you here.

BOOK / Do Pause: You are not a to do list, by Robert Poynton

PODCAST / For the Wild: An Anthology of the Anthropocene

PODCAST / On Being Podcast, with Krista Tippett.