Rest as a Radical Act: Rethinking Recovery
Introduction
Rest is rarely neutral. In a society that celebrates hustle and constant productivity, stopping can feel shameful. For those experiencing minority stress — whether queer, neurodivergent, gender diverse, or otherwise marginalised — rest is even more complex.
But what if recovery wasn’t about bouncing back to keep pace, but about refusing a system designed to exhaust us?
Drawing on insights from psychology, cultural perspectives, Tricia Hersey’s “Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto”, and Dr. Pooja Lakshmin’s “Real Self-Care”, this post reframes rest as more than relaxation. It is a radical act — a form of care, resistance, and healing.
Rest as resistance: taking time to pause, dream, and restore energy challenges grind culture and reclaims wellbeing.
- Illustration from Adobe
The myth of rest as indulgence
Mainstream wellness culture sells rest as a lifestyle brand: yoga retreats, scented candles, luxury spas. This version of rest assumes time, money, and privilege.
But rest is not indulgence. As Black feminist scholar Audre Lorde wrote, “Caring for myself…is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” Tricia Hersey echoes this truth: rest isn’t a reward, it is a refusal — a refusal of grind culture, of the idea that your worth is tied to your productivity.
Hersey reminds us: “We are not machines. We are divine.”
Barriers to real rest
To reclaim rest, we must name the forces that make it inaccessible:
Systemic inequities: Rest is harder when survival is the priority. Communities with fewer resources often carry heavier stress loads.
Grind culture: Western ideals of productivity glorify endless work, dismissing slower, communal, or ancestral rhythms of care.
Minority stress: Living under the constant pressure of discrimination, microaggressions, or exclusion means many people feel unsafe letting go.
Economic pressures: Rising costs and insecure work limit opportunities for meaningful downtime.
As Hersey writes, “Grind culture wants us to ignore our bodies.” These barriers are not personal failings but systemic realities. Recognising them helps shift the narrative from guilt to compassion.
Rest beyond mainstream psychology
Mainstream Western psychology has often prioritised productivity and adaptation — teaching people to “cope” within oppressive systems. Hersey and other voices remind us to ask: What if the problem isn’t the individual, but the system itself?
Many Indigenous, Black, and global traditions already understand rest as cyclical, communal, and spiritual. They emphasise rhythms of restoration through storytelling, ceremony, stillness, and time in nature.
Expanding our lens means not appropriating these practices, but respecting them and questioning why dominant systems dismiss such approaches. Rest, then, is not a luxury. It is a birthright.
Rest as Resistance
Drawing from Dr. Pooja Lakshmin’s “Real Self-Care”, rest becomes radical when it:
Reclaims boundary and agency — choosing when and how to rest, not waiting for permission.
Challenges productivity norms — refusing to measure worth by output.
Honours interdependence — recognising that care is collective, not just individual.
Broadens the lens — understanding that rest looks different across contexts, and advocating for equitable access to it.
In this frame, resting isn’t lazy. It’s resistance against systems that profit from exhaustion.
Tricia Hersey, in “Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto”, extends this by framing rest as a collective refusal of grind culture, capitalism, and oppressive systems. For Hersey, rest is not just personal healing, but a pathway to liberation and dreaming of new futures.
Together, these voices remind us that real rest is not a lifestyle trend — it is boundary, agency, community, and resistance.
Practical, radical rest practices
Rest does not need to be curated or expensive. In fact, Hersey urges us to embrace rest in its simplest forms. Consider:
Micro-rests: Pausing for 30 seconds to breathe or stretch.
Silence as practice: Allowing quiet without filling space.
Community rest: Sharing presence, cooking together, or simply sitting in stillness with others.
Refusal practices: Saying no to overwork, setting limits on availability.
Imagination spaces: Journaling, napping, daydreaming as valid, vital forms of rest.
Nature connection: Lying under a tree, watching clouds, aligning with natural rhythms.
As Hersey puts it: “Rest is a form of resistance because it disrupts and pushes back against capitalism and white supremacy.”
Rest and recovery in therapy
In therapeutic work, rest supports nervous system regulation and resilience. But when we integrate Hersey’s and Lakshmin’s framing, therapy also becomes a place to:
Challenge harmful beliefs about productivity and worth.
Normalise rest as a human right, not a luxury.
Explore guilt and resistance around resting.
Reframe recovery as not just “getting back to work” but rediscovering balance, community, and dignity.
Reflection: Your rest as resistance
Prompt 1: What stories have you been taught about rest (lazy, indulgent, wasteful)?
Prompt 2: How does grind culture show up in your life?
Prompt 3: What would it mean to rest without guilt?
Prompt 4: If you saw rest as liberation, how would you reclaim it today?
Conclusion
Rest is not a luxury, nor a prize earned after exhaustion. It is a radical act of care, healing, and resistance.
As Tricia Hersey writes, “Rest is our divine right.”
When we reclaim rest, we refuse to be defined by productivity. We affirm our humanity. And we open space for dreaming, healing, and imagining futures beyond exhaustion.
So whether for five minutes or five hours — pause. Your rest is resistance. And that is enough.
— Tama Barry
Explore Their Work:
- Dr. Pooja Lakshmin – Real Self-Care
- Tricia Hersey – Rest Is Resistance & The Nap Ministry