Welcome to the first entry of Chase Joy Chanise’s Radical Self Love Series!
What better way to ease into the series than to discuss carving out time for yourself particularly time to rest. I want to encourage everyone to expand their definition of rest to include other aspects of your being, not just your physical vessel. During a time of general civil unrest and a global pandemic, giving your spirit and your mind rest has been vital.
My personal relationship with rest has been stained by my complete burnout from academia. There has not been a period of time where I have not been taking at least two college courses since the winter of 2019. Admittedly this stems from my habit of hyper-focusing on my future. This longstanding habit of mine has certainly caught up with me in the present. During this past year in particular I have been a student leader, worked jobs, and went through a spiritual awakening so abrupt and visceral that it forced me into therapy. All of this while living in the childhood home that’s continually broken my spirit. When I say I’m sick and tired, I am sick and tired. But part of walking my newfound spiritual path has been carving out time for myself to just exist.
Every moment does not need to be centered around productivity. I have been learning to love myself enough to relax and release, which in the long run helps me to retain. Developing a “rest routine” has been essential to calming my anxiety and utter mental exhaustion.
Final Thoughts
Rest is an act of radical self-love because it spits in the face of “grind culture.” Running yourself into the ground is not the flex most people think it is. Rest is replenishing, it’s restorative, it is a privilege many of our ancestors did not have. It allows you to take stock, express gratitude, and adjust your compass if need be. It is important to note that rest may take a different form for each individual. For instance, rest has been showing up in my life recently as creativity. That is an element of myself that I abandoned for more “Type A” pursuits, leaving me feeling nothing short of stifled. My need to throw myself into creating is why we are here at Chase Joy Chanise. Creating art and this blog has been so revitalizing. This endeavor is allowing me to relax mentally, flow, and realign.
My imparting advice is: do not wait to hit the wall before giving yourself the gift of rest.
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