Rest Is Resistance: Free yourself from grind culture and reclaim your life

by Tricia Hersey

Your body is a site of liberation. It doesn’t belong to capitalism. Love your body. Rest your body. Move your body. Hold your body.

I’m inspired by invention and the opportunity to craft something new from scratch. I’m inspired by remixing and being subversive. I am inspired by disruption and tenderness. I am inspired by imagination. I am inspired by grief, mourning, and lament. I believe deeply in vulnerable, generative spaces for healing. I am inspired by rest, daydreaming, and sleep.

We are sleep-deprived because the systems view us as machines, but bodies are not machines. Our bodies are a site of liberation. We are divine and our rest is divine. There is synergy, interconnectedness, and deep communal healing within our rest movement.

I believe rest, sleep, naps, daydreaming, and slowing down can help us all wake up to see the truth of ourselves. Rest is a healing portal to our deepest selves. Rest is care. Rest is radical.

Grind culture has made us all human machines, willing and ready to donate our lives to a capitalist system that thrives by placing profits over people.

Rest is radical because it disrupts the lie that we are not doing enough. It shouts: “No, that is a lie. I am enough. I am worthy now and always because I am here.”

I wish you rest today. I wish you a deep knowing that exhaustion is not a normal way of living. You are enough. You can rest. You must resist anything that doesn’t center your divinity as a human being. You are worthy of care.

People are waking up. People are waking up. People are waking up to the truth of their manipulation under toxic systems. People are waking up to heal. People are waking up to rest.

Our collective rest will change the world because our rest resides in a Spirit of refusal and disruption. Rest is our protest. Rest is resistance. Rest is reparations.

The systems have manipulated and socialized us so that we stay exhausted. We can remain stuck in a never-ending cycle of trauma. If we are not tapped into the truth of our divinity, there is the possibility of continued brainwashing.

Capitalism has cornered us in such a way that we only can comprehend two options. 1: Work at a machine level, from a disconnected and exhausted place, or 2: Make space for rest and space to connect with our highest selves while fearing how we will eat and live.

There are more than two options. The possibilities are infinite, although living under a capitalist system is to be confronted with a model of scarcity. This space makes you falsely believe there is not enough of everything: not enough money, not enough care, not enough love, not enough attention, not enough peace, not enough connection, not enough time. There is abundance.

All of culture is working in collaboration for us not to rest, and when we do listen to our bodies and take rest, many feel extreme guilt and shame.

Grieving the reality of being manipulated to believe we are not enough, divine, or valuable outside of our accomplishments and bank account is a central part of our rest work.

In elementary school, students are being trained to be workers who can follow orders, memorize facts, and be on time no matter what. Imagination and critical thinking skills are replaced with cookie-cutter learning and standardized testing.

“Rest makes us more human. It brings us back to our human-ness.” To be more human. To be connected to who and what we truly are is at the heart of our rest movement.

You are worthy of rest. We don’t have to earn rest. Rest is not a luxury, a privilege, or a bonus we must wait for once we are burned out.

Our bodies and Spirits do not belong to capitalism, no matter how it is theorized and presented. Our divinity secures this, and it is our right to claim this boldly. I’m not grinding ever. I trust the Creator and my Ancestors to always make space for my gifts and talents without needing to work myself into exhaustion.

Overworking and the trauma of burnout continues to degrade our divinity.

It is risk-taking to do the opposite of what the dominant culture wants. Our work is to slowly and deeply cultivate an expansive inner knowing that trusts our intuition and views rest as a physical and psychological disruption.

Grind culture has normalized pushing our bodies to the brink of destruction. We proudly proclaim showing up to work or an event despite an injury, sickness, or mental break. We are praised and rewarded for ignoring our body’s need for rest, care, and repair. The cycle of grinding like a machine continues and becomes internalized as the only way.

If I have been consistently exposed and brainwashed by the violence of grind culture since birth, do I really know what rest feels like? Do I have a model or guide for what it feels like to be rested while living inside a capitalist system? What would it feel like to be consistently rested? What does exhaustion look like for me? Am I navigating the world from a constant state of exhaustion? Who was I before the terror of the toxic systems? Who do I want to be?

This work is about a slow unraveling that will require our participation for our entire lives. It is a cultural shift, rooted in an embodiment lens. This means that we must actively practice, engage, and push back against the dominant culture.

The Rest Is Resistance framework also does not believe in the toxic idea that we are resting to recharge and rejuvenate so we can be prepared to give more output to capitalism.

We are not resting to be productive. We are resting simply because it is our divine right to do so. That is it! Rest in this proclamation for a moment.

Our resting is not a one-time event because to disrupt grind culture there must be a global mind shift that is relentless, constant, subversive, and intentional. To push back against the machine of white supremacy and capitalism, even for ten minutes, is a miracle. This will look like rest being available to everyone. No matter your income, physical ability, sexuality, gender, geographic location, or access. It is not connected to consumerism, capitalism, or the never-ending goal of many to go viral.

What matters is that in our hearts and souls we have decided to refuse and not wait until we have enough or have the perfect number of external things for our rest to be approved by the larger system.

Black people have a direct connection to the brutality of capitalism. Our bodies were America’s first capital and our rest and DreamSpace are stolen constantly.

The rigid idea that justice work centering Blackness, born from a lens of Black liberation, is only for Black people is limiting and false. Black liberation is a global shift for an entire world bamboozled by the lies of capitalism and white supremacy.

Our collective resting coordinated with traveling deep within our hearts begins the process of dismantling capitalism, white supremacy, racism, homophobia, ableism, and patriarchy.

Resistance in our Rest Is Resistance framework means we rest no matter what the systems say. We reimagine rest for ourselves. We craft spaces of physical, spiritual, and psychological rest to disrupt and push back against white supremacy and capitalism. It is a lifelong deprogramming. A mind shift and an ethos that engages with rest as a tool for liberation. The body has information. The trauma response is to keep going and to never stop. Grinding keeps us in a cycle of trauma; rest disturbs and disrupts this cycle.

It must be said right from the beginning that resting, slowing down, napping, and sleeping are not what grind culture expects of us. It will truly be a resistance since the systems make us hard and machine-like. Rest keeps us tender and there is power in our tenderness and care. We will have to slow down enough to listen to what our hearts and bodies want to share with us. Our lives are a beautiful experiment in curiosity and creation. We can craft a life outside of toxic systems. Collective care, imagination, and rest are so vital to our liberation. Without them, we will not make it.

Some places to begin: 1. Detox from social media weekly, monthly, or more. 2. Begin to heal the individual trauma you have experienced that makes it difficult for you to say no and maintain healthy boundaries. 3. Start a daily practice in daydreaming. 4. Accept that there is no quick fix, magic bullet, or instant change. 5. Slowly accept you have been brainwashed. Your socialization in a capitalist culture makes this true. Begin to deprogram by accepting this truth. 6. Slow down. 7. You are enough now. If you have to repeat this to yourself every day, do so. Begin to repair the way white supremacy and capitalism have wrecked your self-esteem and self-worth. 8. Understand exhaustion is not productive. You are not resting to gain energy to be more productive and to do more. 9. Listen more. 10. Create systems of community care.

Grind culture harms the community by making it normal to work and go to bed exhausted and get up and work more. The urgent wheel of capitalism spins on unconcerned with those existing in it. Capitalism commodifies whatever it can and doesn’t allow space for us to experience the full spectrum of being human.

Can you remember a moment in your life when you have been told that the machine pace of your days is not normal? Sit with this for a moment. Breathe this in for a moment now. There has been no space for any of us to dream of anything outside of what we have been born into. To hear the simple and bold proclamation “You are doing too much. You can rest. You can just be. You can be” is revolutionary. To believe it and continue to dream up ways to feel and find rest, care, and healing is liberation.

Grind culture is violence. This can’t be stated enough and we must repeat it over and over to ourselves as we deepen into this truth. You will read it throughout this manifesto. Grind culture is violence and violence creates trauma.

The stress, anxiety, overloaded curriculum, and pressure we normalize in public schools and higher education are toxic and dangerous for everyone involved, but particularly toxic for young children and young adults who are still developing a sense of self. They are exposed to the lie that their worth is determined by how much they can accomplish constantly and it’s reaffirmed and rewarded when they push their bodies to the limit to do well in classes.

To dream, to rest, to turn away from the toxicity of grind culture are radical acts of love for ourselves and our culture. I often speak about how naps will not save you if you are still upholding anti-Blackness, white supremacy, ableism, and patriarchy. All these things are the opposite of love and care.

We are going up against such violent systems in our attempt to disrupt and push back: white supremacy, capitalism, ableism, patriarchy, classism, anti-Blackness, homophobia, etc. Any system that degrades and ignores our divine right to have care, rest, leisure, and space must be examined and illuminated. The time is up for any shallow wellness work that doesn’t speak about dismantling the systems that are making us unwell. We must blame and interrogate the systems. They are the problem.

Our human eyes and a disconnected exhausted body will never get us to the new world we are hoping to build. How can we imagine a liberated world from a burned-out, quick-paced, exhausted state? It’s not possible, and that’s the scam of it all.

Rest is a meticulous love practice. It is a correction to our bodies from the violence of living in a capitalist, white supremacist system. It is a radical love for yourself and others in a place that views your body as simply a tool for it to use and own.

Rest makes invention and imagination accessible. Rest gives us the ability to test our freedom. Our souls are calling to see differently. To move differently. To feel differently. To rest. Rest as a subversive act. The deepest act of resistance. Do not let your lack of money and possessions make you feel negative about your worth as a human being. Do not let your credit score, man-made poverty, and/or racism define your extreme power. Your body is a site of liberation. Rest in your true power. Your birth was not a coincidence. Your coming to Earth is a divine occurrence. They will tell you differently. It will be your life’s lesson to fight for your life to not listen to them.

Rest is not a luxury or a privilege. This lie has been drilled into our brains and minds forever and it’s time to begin to remove this veil.

Capitalism, at some point, has captured me and most of my family, close friends, and community. We are under the spell of chasing the bag, getting a coin, and hustling proudly for wealth. Hustling and grinding trying to get to the unreachable finish line of wealth that most have never enjoyed. The nightmare of capitalism has always been out of our reach; we exist only as a product of it.

I am not overlooking the blatant reality of poverty, low wages, late-stage capitalism, corporations generating billions of dollars while the worker isn’t offered a living wage and all other trickery and abuse that make it feel impossible to thrive.

Imagine what it would feel like, taste like, and smell like to believe you don’t have to prove who you are by your accomplishments and labor.

A truth that is uncomfortable for many to hear and swallow is this: Once we have internalized capitalism and are deep into the cycle of brainwashing, we don’t want to rest, we don’t know how to rest, and we don’t make space for others to rest. Our imagination and sense of invention no longer exist in an abundant way when we are tied up in the shackles of grind culture.

Our self-esteem and self-worth have been wrecked by capitalism, patriarchy, ableism, and racism. All have made us believe we aren’t worthy and that we must prove ourselves by pushing hard every day to be able to receive love, care, rest, grace. It cannot be repeated enough how abusive this lie is to us. Grind culture has thrown us into believing that suffering, hyperproductivity, and constant doing is redemptive. This is a lie.

We imagine by being in community. We imagine by receiving and offering radical care. We imagine by embracing and running toward our interconnectedness. Individualism is leading us to the path of exhaustion and death.

The idea of rest as resistance is a counternarrative to the dominant story. Protest and resistance don’t look one way. It’s what’s really happening on the ground in the small and important details of our lives. It says, “No, this isn’t the full story. I have another perspective. I can speak for myself.” It’s living when someone told you you should die. It’s centering joy when pain and oppression surround you daily. It’s living in your truth, even when your heart trembles at the thought of being vulnerable. It’s napping when the entire culture calls you lazy. It’s sleeping when you have been told by capitalism that you aren’t doing enough. It’s honoring a day, a week, a second for Sabbath. It’s reimagining what a Sabbath can look like based on your own history. Resistance is laying down when you have been told to keep going. It’s listening to the voice whispering inside of you to be productive when your breathing is all the production ever needed. Just keep resting. Keep repeating to yourself and those around you that rest is your resistance.