The case for rest.
Rest is crucial to health– and I’m beginning 2021 by joining the Rest Revolution.
I don’t have time to rest. I don’t even have time to write this blog post.
At least that's what my brain (and all the people in my inbox, DM’s and comments want me to believe).
My laundry is piling up. I’ve got to pack to go to Chicago.
The Christmas tree needs taken down.
And the bills.
There’s a lot to sort.
So, when am I supposed to rest?
Over the past 7 years running a startup, it was stolen moments here and there, always paired with immense guilt and anxiety that “I should be doing something else.”
Then a pandemic happened. And I couldn’t go anywhere. I didn’t have a business anymore. The world was on pause.
And it was glorious for my sleep schedule. I FINALLY got to rest.
Now– I live alone. I don’t have a partner (yet), and I don’t have children. I don’t have ailing parents or family members who need me (except my young nephews here and there). I’m ‘lucky’ in this way. Or rather it’s lucky for my ability to choose what to do with my time.
Much of that changed for me in December. I took on more work. I renovated my office into a photo studio. I finalized a pro-bono project I’d been working on for the past 6 months. I am nearing the completion of my warehouse / workshop move.
And with ‘all of that on my plate’ (another thought that steals rest from me), I find that it’s very hard to relax.
When I’m rested, I’m able to be creative. Generous. Kind. Loving. Happy.
Prioritizing rest will mean de-prioritizing other things (and people). And for most women (and especially women of color) this is not possible.
We need mandatory, government support for care taking– the majority of which falls on the shoulders of women. And we need our women back in this country. We need the creativity and care and perspective and love they bring, and to do so, they must have rest.
When I think of some of the big changes I want to see in 2021 and beyond, it’s to finally recognize all of the unpaid labor that women provide to this country and begin paying them for it– or allowing them to outsource it so that they may have rest (or do other things with their time).
For me, personally, I am making rest a non-negotiable. It’s how I know I’ll be able to show up for the world more effectively. That started with closing my business officially and taking care of business I’d put off while I rested in 2020.
It began with disappointing a lot of people. But choosing myself, instead.
What’s Push Publish?
It’s a 12-week creative coaching program– to help you vision and execute a project that’s dear to you. That could be a new home office design. Or a coaching program. Or even an overhaul of your wardrobe. It’s any project that is meaningful to you, and that you might do well having structure and support around.
It will be AMAZING.
We begin on January 18. Join me.
