‘Rest Means Thriving’: Rest as Political Resistance is the Alternative to Burnout Under Capitalism
By Amber Wilkinson
Capitalism is killing us. Neurodivergent people have always been aware of this, masking and trying to live in a society not built for us while burning out behind closed doors. But is there an alternative way of living for all of us?
Capitalism Sucks (Duh)
Tamra Kaghembe’s essay for Heroica, ‘Rise and Grind’: Why We Need to Stop Normalising Grind Culture is a necessary read for why it is necessary to start distancing ourselves from the idea of ‘grind culture’.
As Tamra writes, ‘Surviving no longer means giving our bodies what they need – sleep, food, water – but instead endlessly labouring away at tasks that leave us feeling exhausted.’ We’ve moved away from listening to our bodies, pushing ourselves into burnout under workaholism. Tamra begins to offer another way of living: ‘Resist the urge to ignore your body’s way of telling you that it requires some care, even at the cost of losing your train of thought.’
I think this is the kind of politics we all need right now. The only guaranteed conclusion of grind culture is burnout, no matter what the results of that work could be. We give our minds and bodies over to corporations and companies who pay our wages, giving up our joy in the process.
Neurodivergent Burnout
A social group that knows more than anyone what it means to burnout is neurodivergent folk. As one myself, I have spent many years of my life giving it all within both work and social spaces, leading to exhaustion once I get home. Recently, I struggled my way through writing an essay for my master’s degree, stuck in a state of brain fog. I was too exhausted to write or think yet I had to finish due to the compressed timeframes that continue to make academia inaccessible for us.
To maintain energy, many neurodivergent and debilitated people use the spoon theory. Developed by Christine Miserandino, the spoon theory incorporates the idea that ‘“healthy” people have a never-ending supply of “spoons”. But when you have to now plan your day, you need to know exactly how many “spoons” you are starting with. It doesn’t guarantee that you might not lose some along the way, but at least it helps to know where you are starting.’ Miserandino has lupus, and like a lot of people with chronic illnesses, the spoon theory helps to plan and conserve energy.
Working with this system means working out which spoons you can afford to lose while working out how many you need to keep for yourself. Activities like work, socialising and shopping would have different spoon weightings. For example, for some work might be three spoons, while socialising is only two.
The spoon theory allows you to manage your energy, as well as to work out when rest is needed. This is vital for neurodivergent people. Even spending an hour with friends sometimes means going home to lie in bed for a couple of hours to reset my energy bar. Living slowly and mindfully means still getting things done but at a pace that works for you.
These moments of reset can themselves be creative, termed ‘crip time’ within disability studies. In ‘crip time’, disabled people can create spaces outside of capitalist, linear time in which we can find pleasure, creativity and joy. This can be time to read, paint, create. It can be time to think about the world – and how to disrupt it. I can write poetry or educate myself, all from the comfort of my bed.
Permaculture is Political
Within disability justice, both physically and neurologically impaired people centre rest and slowness as an alternative way of living to the capitalist ‘grind’, like that offered by Miserandino. This slow way of living echoes a lot of the politics of permaculture, which at its basic essence, according to Liberation Agriculture, is ‘about creating harmonious human cultures that work with rather than against the rest of the natural world.’
Creating these harmonious human cultures requires nurture through radical community care. The 9th Principle of David Holmgren’s (one of the founders of permaculture) principles of permaculture is to ‘use small and slow solutions.’ Like plants, rest and nurturing are vital to growth. Labouring away will push us further back than if we allowed ourselves space to breathe. We must slow right down if we want to do more than just survive. Rest means thriving.
Decolonisation is Central
As Liberation Agriculture emphasises, just looking for solutions within disability and climate justice is not enough. Decolonisation must be key to this process. If we are to look to permaculture for answers, we must recognise, as Leah Penniman writes, that it is ‘an amalgamation of a number of indigenous agroecology technologies that have been rebranded, packaged and sold mostly by college-educated white men to turn a profit on their courses’. Permaculture is not simply about wellness; it’s political. Indigenous populations need to be centred within its politics, valuing indigenous knowledge systems in order to avoid the trap of green colonialism.
In my research, I found a book called Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey. Tricia Hersey’s The Nap Ministry centres rest as a resistance for people of colour against the systems of capitalism and white supremacy. According to the 4 tenets of the ministry:
Rest is a form of resistance because it disrupts and pushes back against capitalism and white supremacy.
Our bodies are a site of liberation.
Naps provide a portal to imagine, invent and heal.
Our DreamSpace has been stolen and we want it back. We will reclaim it via rest.
I think we can learn from these tenets together to build a politics of rest. We can combine many of these solutions into a broader slowness framework. What’s central to a politics of rest and slowness is disruption. We must disrupt the cycles of burnout and exhaustion we are stuck in. We must question capitalism, white supremacy and colonialism. We must seek a resistance rooted in community care to construct new ways of living, particularly for marginalised groups; disabled (neurodivergent included here), trans, queer, POC, indigenous groups and those for whom multiples of these labels intersect.
Have a nap. Let’s see what we can create together.
Resources:
‘Rise and Grind’: Why We Need to Stop Normalising Grind Culture
Description of The Spoon Theory