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Rest as Revolution: Embracing Rest and Rejuvenation During the Holidays
22 Plays1 month ago
This is why doing nothing is the most revolutionary thing you can do this holiday season - and why you desperately need to reclaim rest.
Here's what we're exploring about rest as revolution:
- The competition problem: 43% say holiday stress interferes with enjoyment, 36% say holidays feel like competition
- Hustle culture invades holidays: pressure to ace it, attend everything, find perfect gifts, create Instagram moments, make it magical
- Why rest is revolutionary: in the US we're expected to always be productive - even rest should be "productive" - so just being is radical
- Practical rest practices: say no, take micro-breaks (5 min in car), create cozy rituals, digital detox (grayscale phone mode)
- Redefining productivity: measure success by how you feel, not by parties attended or gifts bought
From understanding that rest is viewed as laziness to recognizing it's actually radical self-care and boundary setting, this episode challenges you to refuse participation in toxic productivity.
About half of people aren't enjoying the holidays because there's so much pressure to perform, get it right, be better than someone else. It doesn't have to be that way.
Rest is resistance. When you honor what your body needs over external expectations, you model healthy behavior for others. You lead by example.
Subscribe. Share. Remember that rest isn't lazy - it's revolutionary.
Small steps, big healing. Keep growing! ✨
Join the conversation! What's your rest practice this holiday season? DM me on Instagram @YourCoachMari - let's normalize rest!
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Transcript
Introduction and Purpose
00:00:02
Speaker
Hello beautiful souls and welcome back to another installment of the Growing with Sol podcast where we explore the moments and stories that shape who we're becoming. I'm Marisol and this is where I love to have real conversations about growth, self-discovery and learning to put yourself first.
00:00:18
Speaker
Whether we're diving into books that change our perspective or unpacking personal experiences that teach us something new, this podcast is for women who are done playing small and ready to embrace their own journey.
00:00:30
Speaker
If you've struggled with putting everyone else first or battled self-doubt, you're in the right place. This isn't about perfection. It's about the messy, beautiful process of growing into yourself.
00:00:43
Speaker
So come grow with me.
The Revolutionary Act of Rest
00:00:46
Speaker
What if I told you that doing nothing could be one of the most revolutionary things that you could possibly do this holiday season?
00:00:58
Speaker
I thoroughly believe that rest is resistance. Rest is a form of resistance and rebelling against, I feel like standard American culture, um but essentially, definitely, rebellion and resistance against the hustle culture that we have here in the U.S.,
00:01:21
Speaker
And when we apply that or when we look at the holiday season through that lens, we can see very quickly that there is this air of stress when it comes to the holidays, whether it be decorating, getting presents, events that we need to attend, to being around family.
00:01:42
Speaker
There's so much within every aspect of the holiday season that can cause someone's stress. And that is already on top of all the work that we're doing for some of us, maybe on top of like the work that we're doing, in relationship stress, maybe a lot of the activism we've been doing as well a lot this year, especially. And then you add on top of that, this new season that is consuming us essentially.
00:02:08
Speaker
So because of that, I do think that rest can be extremely revolutionary. so we're going to be talking about why rest matters, why it's important, and how maybe we can enjoy the holiday season a little bit, even if we are contending with all these different things.
00:02:25
Speaker
And there's some practical ways to reclaim that rest that we so badly need if we are going to continue on in our lives and in our activism.
Impact of Hustle Culture
00:02:39
Speaker
So let's go ahead and like first dig into hustle culture and what that is and why i kind of feel like it's a uniquely American thing. Maybe not uniquely American, maybe other Western nations are similar, but we are within the American context here.
00:02:57
Speaker
So essentially hustle culture is the glorification of busyness and productivity essentially at all costs. Like I'm sure we've all have like known that person who is constantly striving to be the busiest.
00:03:11
Speaker
That is definitely hustle culture. i do think that a lot of like the standard American work culture essentially laid the foundation for hustle culture. but and this I'm not going to do a deep dive in hustle culture. I definitely don't. This is not the place for that. But I do think that American work culture is very,
00:03:33
Speaker
one, toxic, but oh my God, I'm like thinking about like, it's puritanical. I mean, it is, but also it's, um,
00:03:45
Speaker
I don't know, I can't think of the right word that i want that I want to use, but American work culture essentially laid the foundation for the hustle culture that we now see ourselves engaging in With that being said, when we see that hustle culture, it doesn't stay in the workplace.
Holiday Stress and Expectations
00:04:02
Speaker
When we are operating in that mode for the majority of our lives, whether it's you know eight to five or even more than that, if we are operating within hustle culture, we're usually working longer hours than what's actually in our contracts because what's expected of us is actually different than what might be in our contracts. um Then we then are operating in that hustle culture mode and we apply it to other aspects of our lives. In this particular episode, we're going to be looking at the holiday season. So then when we look at the holidays and how we apply hustle culture to the holidays, there is so much pressure to make the holiday season fantastic.
00:04:44
Speaker
Or if you're like more academically minded, there is a lot of pressure to like ace the holidays. This can look like pressure to attend every party that you're invited to pressure to find the perfect gift.
00:04:59
Speaker
Maybe it's pressure to create like Instagram worthy moments. And then if we are also looking at like work as well, there is that pressure of like, it's the year end crunch, or like maybe we need like be closing closing out the year strong. Like there's just so much pressure to end the year on a high note. And then also for a lot of us, especially for a lot of moms,
00:05:22
Speaker
It's the pressure on top of all of that to then make the holiday season magical for your children, for your families. And then often, even if you're married, you might be the only one who's actually working on creating that holiday magic.
00:05:38
Speaker
It's a lot. It's a lot to contend with. And we do see a lot of individuals during this time of year are really burning feeling anxiety, feeling really stressed.
00:05:49
Speaker
um Maybe there is a huge disconnect from what truly matters during this season to everyone. And a lot of people just don't like this season because it just creates more stress for them instead of being something that is truly enjoyable.
00:06:07
Speaker
In a 2023 article by the American Psychological Association, it states that while nearly half of U.S. adults, about 49%, would describe their stress levels during the traditional U.S. holiday season between November and January as moderate, around 2 in 5, 41%, said their stress increases during this time compared with other points in the year.
00:06:31
Speaker
While stress appears to be common at this time of year, 43% said that the stress of the holidays interferes with their ability to enjoy them. And 36% said the holidays feel like a competition.
00:06:46
Speaker
oh my God. No, I mean, who's going to enjoy that? Who's going to enjoy a competition when you should just be enjoying being around like your friends, your family, the people you love and I think that it's important to highlight that through this article, through these statistics, that about half of the people are not enjoying the holiday season because there's just so much pressure to perform, to get it right, to be better than somebody else.
00:07:12
Speaker
like It's ridiculous that this is something that we are contending with when it shouldn't be that way or rather it doesn't have to be that way.
Challenging Rest Myths
00:07:24
Speaker
So let's look at rest as it pertains to the holiday season. Now, one of the main reasons I wanted to talk about rest during this season specifically is because it's it's like one of the few times in the year that, especially within the United States, people are actually able to take time off of work. Like like you have multiple holidays coming up so people get days off.
00:07:50
Speaker
So you have Thanksgiving. Some people also get Black Friday off. You have Christmas Eve and and like Christmas. And then about a week or so after that, you do have New Year's Day usually off. So you have multiple holidays. And then also around that, people are able to then take more PTO around that.
00:08:06
Speaker
So you could expect, since you are not at work, that maybe you would be taking some time to rest, recuperate, and enjoy that time off however best suits you.
00:08:21
Speaker
but we see that that's not happening. And I think one of the ways that that might be the case, especially if we're looking at like hustle culture as applied to the holiday season, is that a lot of people look at rest as laziness. A lot of people look at rest as almost like a waste of time.
00:08:38
Speaker
But if we can reframe this, as not, as it not being lazy to rest and to take time off and to truly recuperate.
00:08:49
Speaker
But we can see it as a radical act of self-care and even boundary setting because that often is what gets in the way as well. So why is it viewed as revolutionary? Well, let's look at the context again.
00:09:06
Speaker
That's because within the United States, we are expected to always be productive. Like even your rest and your recuperation is meant to be productive in some kind of a way. so If you're expected to always be doing something, the mere thought of doing nothing and just being is so fucking foreign and it feels like it's wrong.
00:09:34
Speaker
So to go against the grain like that and to just be truly is revolutionary. So one, you're definitely refusing to participate in this like capitalistic version of productivity and what it demands of you.
00:09:52
Speaker
You are taking the time to truly honor what your body needs over any kind of crazy external expectation. And then on top of that, when we start doing this, other people are going to notice. so you're going to be modeling this healthy, in my opinion, very healthy behavior for other people as well. And kind of leading by example.
00:10:15
Speaker
So one of the ways that I try to incorporate this, this like revolutionary, know, resistance, resistance kind of approach to things is being intentional.
00:10:27
Speaker
You know, like, again, i operate within the context of hustle culture and work culture in the United States. Like, I live here, so it's kind of par for the course. um But one of the ways that I truly work on this is by being intentional in the things that I do. I don't always get it right, okay?
00:10:47
Speaker
i I definitely struggle as well. However, through intentionality, I am able to focus on one thing and like do deep work on that one thing for whatever amount of time i allot or is necessary. And that way i can focus on my rest and go deep in the rest portion for whatever time I allot or is necessary.
00:11:14
Speaker
One of the key things that I'm constantly working on, and I don't always get it right, is procrastination. And people tend to procrastinate for a lot of different reasons. um I tend to procrastinate because either the task at hand gives me anxiety or I am so fucking burnt out that the thought of doing any kind of work is just like, no.
00:11:40
Speaker
Like I'm so burnt out that like my body and my brain are just like, you are not, like you're not going to function right now. We are turning off and you're shit out of luck.
00:11:51
Speaker
So in order to prevent that, I really do work on being realistic with the things that I can achieve in a given amount of time.
00:12:03
Speaker
And then also making sure that my rest is truly rest because sometimes we we lie to ourselves in saying that we're resting when really we're procrastinating.
00:12:16
Speaker
So we need to be real with ourselves about which one we're doing. And that's one of the things that I do constantly, constantly work on. So what are some other practical ways that you can go ahead and practice rest?
Practical Tips for Rest
00:12:32
Speaker
So this is how we actually do it, okay? Practice saying no i know you're gonna be like, my soul, that's easy. no it's not. If saying no was easy, we would not be having this conversation, okay?
00:12:47
Speaker
Practice saying no. You can decline invitations to certain things, decline invitations to parties, decline invitations to participating in I don't know, white elephants or whatever. Like, you don't have to do these things.
00:13:04
Speaker
Not always. By saying no to some, it'll allow you to say yes to others, perhaps, and allow you to really enjoy the thing that you are saying yes to because you said no to other things as well. So it has a lot of benefits.
00:13:18
Speaker
So how can we go about saying no and still be courteous and polite if we are nervous about saying no to things? um You know, you can say that you have a lot going on already or that you're participating a lot in other events or perhaps that you have something else going on that day.
00:13:36
Speaker
One of the things that I did work with a client on a while back was if someone was inviting them to something, instead of saying yes or no right away, if you need something a little bit more graceful or something to buy you time, you can be like, okay, I need to need to check my calendar and then I'll get back to you on that. like These are different things that you can do and say in order to say no gracefully and politely like exit a potential like invitation. Also, definitely take some time to think about If just saying no flat out doesn't feel comfortable for you yet, what are some ways to say no that do feel comfortable for you?
00:14:09
Speaker
I do also think that a lot of us can take more breaks instead of just maybe one giant day off. We can take the time during the day to take a break, take a little micro rest. So maybe that's like a five minute breathing break. If you are very into breath work, do a little bit of breath work in between, maybe like a five minute meditation.
00:14:32
Speaker
Really take that time throughout your day where maybe you most need it or where it makes the most sense to put it in your schedule to take a little break. This might also include maybe like your morning coffee without your phone. Maybe, okay, I feel like a lot of us have done this. I've definitely done this in my life, like sitting in your car for a little bit.
00:14:51
Speaker
Like whether you like when you get somewhere, maybe when you get home, sitting in your car for maybe like five minutes before going into the other thing or like whatever it is.
00:15:03
Speaker
I don't know what it is about that time, but it is amazing. So if your only amount of alone time is that those five, 10 minutes when you're sitting in your car, make sure you do that.
00:15:15
Speaker
That is a micro rest that can have major benefits. Another thing that we can do is making sure that we have you know, like our cozy rituals, especially this time of year when it's cold, it's getting dark earlier. It's definitely more of an invitation to slow down. And perhaps what we might need is a routine or like a ritual that we do in order to remind ourselves, remind our bodies that this is the time and that it is okay to now rest and relax.
00:15:52
Speaker
So this might be creating like a cozy little reading nook. This might be like a non-negotiable like afternoon nap, maybe an evening walk where you're just going for a walk. Like there's no agenda attached to it.
00:16:05
Speaker
Maybe not even like a time limit. You're just going to go for a walk and just enjoy it for what it is. um These are things that I definitely enjoy doing. I would say, I mean, the walks for me are non-negotiable, but only because if I don't take Mochi on a walk, I feel like he would murder me.
00:16:21
Speaker
So if you have a dog, then you're probably going on walks already. So maybe what is something that you can do to like amplify that experience so that it's a little bit more cozy, a little bit more restful? Maybe that's going for a walk with your dog without having any kind of media. um Lately, I've kind of been doing the opposite where I've been listening to an audio book. So I've been walking mochi. I have an earbud I'm listening to my audio book and it has been phenomenal. And it's been the absolute perfect time for me to listen to the audio book.
00:16:52
Speaker
Also, definitely, i love just like watching a movie and like cuddling it up with Moj. And it's the best thing ever. Cuddling with him, we have definitely, like we've watched K-pop Demon Hunters like three times, Mojie and I. So, you know, whatever your rest ritual might be, make sure to do that consistently.
Digital Detox Benefits
00:17:13
Speaker
Another thing that you can do is a digital detox. When I tell you I dream of this, like I've seen this meme going around where it's just like the millennial urge to like delete all of your social media. Like, yes, I have that desire every so often. And there are definitely times where I just Like, i don't even want to open my laptop. i don't want to see a screen. They do tend to happen when i am overworking myself and to the point where my eyes hurt.
00:17:44
Speaker
Like when my eyes are sore and tired from staring at a screen all day. I don't want to look at a screen for like five business days or something.
00:17:55
Speaker
Obviously that's not possible given what I do, but that sentiment is there. But what are some other ways that maybe you can also do a digital detox? Maybe it's designating a tech free time.
00:18:07
Speaker
Maybe it's also recognizing that you have like, you don't need to always be up to date and seeing everything all the time. So maybe you have like a timer for certain apps on your phone. Um,
00:18:19
Speaker
I have like a ah bedtime mode on my phone where like I can no longer get notifications. And then also it like turns my phone grayscale. So like it's not enticing to look at.
00:18:32
Speaker
That definitely helps me put the phone down and be like, i don't need to see this anymore because like there are no colors. It is not fun essentially. So maybe that'll work for you as well.
Redefining Holiday Success
00:18:43
Speaker
Another thing that we can do is that reframing aspect, and that might just be redefining productivity. So especially when it comes to the holiday season where we want to enjoy the people we love, our friends, we want to enjoy the holiday season altogether, and perhaps What we can do here is redefining the productivity around this season. We can measure our success by perhaps how we feel and not by how many parties we attend, how many gifts we buy, if we bought the right gift for someone, or if we finished decorating the house in time.
00:19:20
Speaker
let's Let's not do that and just measure the success by how much fun we had, maybe the great conversations we had, maybe who we got to see perhaps and spend time with that we haven't seen in a long time.
00:19:33
Speaker
How can we reframe productivity, especially in this season?
Call to Action and Gratitude
00:19:39
Speaker
So let's remember that especially during this time of year, rest is resistance and that you deserve to rest and you deserve to have consistent rest practices.
00:19:50
Speaker
I would challenge you to pick one of these rest practices and give it a try during the holiday season. And definitely let me know how it goes. If you've made it this far into the episode, i definitely appreciate you.
00:20:03
Speaker
If this episode resonated with you, definitely subscribe to the podcast and leave a five-star review. Additionally, i am currently accepting clients. So if you would like some help with this and some accountability, you can definitely schedule your very own discovery call with me through the link in the show notes.
00:20:21
Speaker
Until next time, keep growing.