When Rest Sparks Creativity
Let's unpack where the guilt of resting comes from, and how you can transform that legacy for inspired and sustainable creativity.
My rest story started long before I took my first breath.
It started with my first ancestors and has evolved over generations, with more recent ancestors impacted by colonization.
I still witness the effects of white patriarchal capitalist ideals on my mother, which has been passed down through my matriarchal lineage.
Even on her days off from her physically laborious job, she continues to buzz around the house, cleaning never ending, and quickly snapping “it’s fine” if I offer to help.
But after years of inquiry and uncovering family history one conversation at a time, I’ve moved from frustration to patient grace for her.
As kids, her and her sibling lost their mother and welcomed a new stepmother who imposed rigid discipline and physical punishment if not obeyed. There are gray areas I’m still unaware of, but these days my titas and titos laugh about their rebellious youth and love on their stepmother with warm embraces (Mama C has left this earthly realm last spring, and hope she is healing in eternal rest).
My mother though, has still been very tightlipped. Trauma is stored in the body, and is expressed in different ways, and I’ve learned to not push more than she can handle uncovering her story with us.
I can keep going back farther into my ancestry to her mother and then her mother and so on, but that’s a story for another time.
My own personal rest story has been influenced by the creative industry, especially in the marketing and digital realm where new content needs to be pushed all the time to catch audience’s short attention spans.
Capitalist productivity puts value on what you can produce and being always “on”.
Using up your whole lunch break for LUNCH? What do you mean? Aren’t you supposed to be glued to your laptops, answering emails and slack messages while your sandwich gets cold?
Only in my last job did I truly close my laptop and enjoy the return to my earthly physical vessel for my hour long lunch break. No notifications, no phone, no laptop.
We aren’t meant to be inundated with external stimulation that often throughout our life.
Nonwestern cultural traditions outside of america have always embraced siestas, naps, early closing hours for businesses, and long dinners to rest, enjoy community, and experience our humanity with each other.
This is how we lengthen our lives. Not with the next trendy diet or exercise tool from that infomercial or culturally appropriated herbal blend.
What are your burnout stories?
How do we create spaciousness for our subconscious to do the work, EFFORTLESSLY?
Do you ever get ideas while in the shower or right before bed? Your brain isn’t overstimulated by external noise, constant news updates, notifications.
Ideas flow freely, solutions arrive effortlessly, your mind is rested.
Daily morning meditation and morning pages have been instrumental to my own capacity to hold space for others, so that my intuition is sharp and my energy levels are balanced.
Even movement, watering the garden, and childlike dance are forms of rest to move stagnant energy through my body so I may show up to my clients with the utmost care.
Some words from Gather, by Octavia Raheem (p 85):
“Do you ever feel guilty when you rest?
When you pause? When you don’t answer the call?
When you say no? When you slow down?
Where does that guilt come from?
How do you plan to transform that legacy of not resting?”
Week 2 of my group program, Unearthing Creative Wisdom, was on Rest Practices and Embodied Pleasure.
We meditated, exchanged stories, and crafted our own rest toolkits to return to when we are in need of nourishment.
Let’s work more personally together in my 1:1 Creativity Labs or join the waitlist for the next round of my UCW group program. I’d love to guide you in crafting your own rest practices to support your creative goals.
Explore the buttons below to learn more:
An invitation for you: What is one achievable action you can do TODAY to honor your pleasurable rest?
Want to read more about rest and my offerings?
🛌 Read “Easy Ways to Rest ASAP”
🛌 Read When Rest Brings in Easeful Abundance (and Restarts my Late Period)
🛌 Read Creativity Lab 1:1 | Dreams of Painting on a Farm
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