What if you got 8 hours of sleep every night?
What if you were free from guilt if you didn’t check off all your to do list?
What if your self-worth was not tied to how productive you were on a given day?
What is keeping you from living this way?
Honestly, there’s a lot that’s keeping me from living this way. That’s the main purpose of my sabbatical is to slow down and discover new rhythms for sustaining a joy-filled life.
I’ve talked to a lot of other parents as we’re gearing up for the start of school. So many people have told me it’s not the school itself they’re dreading, but everything that comes with it: the activities, the sports, the traffic!
So here are two books I’ve read recently that re-shaped the way I view rest and slowing my rhythm.
How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell is less about doing literally nothing and more about how to resist the attention economy. As an artist, she advocates face-to-face relationships, getting to know local bird and plant species, and writing with pen and paper. All of these practices will slow life down by default. But, Odell is most-interested in reclaiming our experiences as valuable in and of themselves and not as commodities that companies can use to sell us ads. (Thanks, social media)
Addressing the pull of capitalism and grind culture on our lives, Tricia Hersey’s Rest Is Resistance is truly a manifesto, as it says right there on the cover. Hersey has completely changed the way I view the power of rest to boldly reclaim my time away from the pull to produce and the narratives that would define my value based on what I do. Also an artist, she has held collective nap installations where people are invited into a common space to nap together. There’s a whole section on daydreaming that I am still taking in and will probably write more about later. Go take a nap, then read it. Then take another nap.
Often, I just don’t give myself permission to do restful things like go on a walk, stare into the distance, or leisurely read when I’m in get-stuff-done mode. Only when I’m on vacation or specifically bracket off time for leisure do I relax my shoulders and allow myself that deep breath. It’s like I have two switches: running and stressed, or still and a little less stressed.
What if we just rest our eyes for a few moments, stare out the window, or watch the clouds? I’m pretty sure my to do list wouldn’t notice, and that it would make a big difference for me.
~Breath Prayer~
Inhale
Take in rest
Exhale
Release all tension
~What I’m reading~
Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey
A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny