Rest is radical. Be a radical.
It’s been an exhausting February so far, following on the heels of a tiresome January.
In my case, that is partially health-related (rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia, both of which have been noisy lately), and partly based on me reacting to the absolute firehose of concerning news coming from the new administration, along with world news that is upsetting in many ways. The “tl;dr” of it is that it’s hard to have chronic health problems, and it’s extra challenging when your country appears to be falling apart due to actions by white supremacist oligarchs.
I’ve heard it said that if you’ve ever wondered what you would have done when the Nazis came to power in Germany, you should assume it is whatever it is you are doing now.
Like most of the people in my life, I do not have my head in the sand. I have been taking the actions that I can take (phone calls, boycotts, emails, letters), donating to things where I am able (candidates and causes), and worrying about lots of things: whether our social security payments will disappear, whether people we love will be sent to “work camps” because they use anti-depressants, whether others will lose their citizenship or be deported, whether we are drifting closer to war with countries most of us consider close allies, including Canada . . . The list goes on and on, and believe it or not, this is me keeping my more inflammatory concerns to myself.
It is time for us all to do something radical.
Yes, that means things like marching or protesting, engaging in boycotts, to pressuring our representatives to stop or at least slow things down. I’m for sure not buying a single thing on February 28th, as I am participating in the economic blackout organized by the People’s Union. I understand that those things are important and we need to keep it up.
But another way to be radical is to REST.
Rest is radical. Rest is a form of resistance.
You don’t have to take it from me, either. Take it from Tricia Hersey (founder of the Nap Ministry), who wrote the book REST IS RESISTANCE: A Manifesto. As it says in The Nap Ministry post dated February 21, 2022:
It is about a deep unraveling from white supremacy and capitalism. These two systems are violent and evil. History tells us this and our present living shows this. Rest pushes back and disrupts a system that views human bodies as a tool for production and labor. It is a counter narrative. We know that we are not machines. We are divine.
A thought experiment for you:
Can you operate at full brain-power without adequate rest? Can you operate at peak physical strength without adequate rest?
The answer to these questions is a resounding NO, and that answer becomes clearer the longer you go without adequate rest. Your thought processes and your physical abilities break down. It becomes harder to run or to fight.
Now ask yourself: Who benefits from me being unable to think clearly or to fight back if necessary? The answers are there in that quote from The Nap Ministry: white (male) supremacy and capitalism benefit. If you can’t marshal your strength to push back, then you can be more easily subdued or overtaken.
I’ve written about rest a number of times before, and one of my best pieces on the topic in my opinion is “Why Rest is the Ultimate Protective Gear in a Busy, Chaotic World”, which I wrote for Tiny Buddha.
Which brings me back to the idea of rest being radical. It is radical because it is you refusing to participate in your own subjugation. It is radical because, when resting, you are reclaiming your own power.
Types of rest
Physical rest: getting enough sleep, taking naps, taking breaks, gentle movement, meditation
Mental rest: taking breaks, meditation, zoning out or letting your mind wander, daydreaming
Emotional rest: expressing the emotions you feel instead of blocking them; stepping away from whatever is emotionally draining, taking breaks, movement to process emotions
Sensory rest: put down social media; step away from crowds, noise, light, overstimulation; give your senses: eyes, ears, nose, etc. a break (e.g. dim the lights, get outside in nature)
Social rest: avoid people you find upsetting; surround yourself with people you find uplifting; take a break from people entirely and spend some alone time (e.g., time in nature)
Spiritual rest: look for a connection to something greater than yourself; meditation or prayer; time in nature
You may notice that things like “meditation” and “time in nature” appear under several different categories above, and you would be right in deducing that you engaging in them would satisfy multiple needs for rest. For instance: a walk alone in nature would count as gentle movement (physical and emotional), a break (mental and emotional), alone time (social and sensory), a connection with something bigger than you (spiritual).
“Rest isn’t only lounging, napping, or sleeping. It is anything that unplugs you from society’s machinery and allows you some headspace. It is anything that allows your mind and body to reconnect, and to feel whole.”
Rest isn’t only lounging, napping, or sleeping. It is anything that unplugs you from society’s machinery and allows you some headspace. It is anything that allows your mind and body to reconnect, and to feel whole.
A rested you would be able to make clearer decisions. A rested you would be more present in relationships and better able to assess which ones are working for you and which ones need work (or to be cut off). A rested you would feel more connected to yourself and your personal values, and more able to take action in defense of those values.
A rested you would have better mental health, better physical health, better emotional health. A rested you would be better able to manage social interaction, and to connect spiritually with nature, whatever god(s) you believe in, etc. It would enable you to be more fully you, and less of a cog in capitalism’s machinery.
And that, my friend, is why rest is radical.
Be a radical.
