RAD REST: Finding Natural Patterns of Rest
I don’t know a single person today who isn’t exhausted-and that’s not ok with me! I hope to shine light on our shared physical and emotional depletion to illuminate the inherently possible and adamantly necessary ability for our rehabilitation through natural rhythms of rest. I have been trying to better understand my relationship with productivity and relaxation and hope to touch on ideas and observations that can potentially reflect back on your life. By sharing these thoughts I seek hopeful and truly restful alternatives for myself, and the more I understand and accept the import of such in our Earthly existence. I hope to evoke a deserved pause among People Who Care so we give ourselves the valued time to do what we truly want in this brief and remarkable life. Thank you for taking the time to read this essay and to consider my opinion. I love you friend.
Big big love, Sarah Grover
RAD REST
I am a farm hand and fairy apprentice at Wild Heart Farm as of this past summer. Being just a slight part of this magical ecosystem has given me such a beautiful opportunity to interact and learn from humans and nature like never before. I’m a Wild Child from birth but was raised in our hyper-commoditized, over-packaged, under-appreciated society that inflicted shame on many of our nature-rooted tendencies. I have not been given much social space to peacefully and lovingly be wildly me, as I’m sure many of you can relate to. This has created a lot of pressure in my life around feeling trapped. This trapped feeling leads me to work really hard to escape it (instead exhausting me and depleting myself further), or to be really angry, scared, and/ or sad. All these acts create high anxiety in my life and have led to years of unrest in my soul, my mindset, and general overall body. This is not the reality I want to accept for myself.
My time at Wild Heart, however, has been unbridled– with true freedom and acceptance. In being heard and seen and felt and loved by all the beautiful people involved with Wild Heart, I have started to feel less confined and therefore less of a need to rant and focus on being caged freeing myself from the cage in my mind. My time spent ‘working’ at the farm now feels like time for me to be free from the chaos of consumeristic destruction and toxic interpersonal relationships. I am part of a larger force of creation and growth and reciprocated nurturement… and of essential rest.
Wild-Hearted Women’s Radical Rest Retreat yoga session Sarah in action
Kristen M. Caldon, Photographer - Insta @photographicexplorer
It’s a beautiful revelation that echoes true in my observations of the natural ecosystem flourishing on, around and because of the farm as well. In my succinct and English flavored understanding of ‘wildness’ I am starting to see more peace and calm entangled in the complete picture.
Behold the beauty of nature
And to put it one last way; I’m finding a lot more Heart in the Wild than they let me believe was possibly correlated. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, ya’ll and I behold the beauty of nature. The beauty of peace, stillness and calm that we are turning so rapidly away from. Sure, phones are cool; it was nice to type these thoughts onto a computer and send them into the interwebs for you all to tap into. But yaaa’lll! I’m just reminding us to go outside! I’d have rather just walked outside and seen you there and smiled and waved. But neither of us are there yet and I’d be honored to do it together.
Patterns of rest, resilience, mutual aid and cooperation are found in nature. Photo by Kate Watters
We all know what the heck is happening around us. There are endless articles, reports and research, the goose bumps and bad vibes that point to the necessity of rest, more sleep, less screen time, drive time, work time, etc. But how realistic is it to actually be able to survive in the society without buckling almost every day under superficial, external pressures to keep performing—earning—spending and succeeding? The need for rest is deeper and more radical than colleges will let us publish about.
If we want true and natural rest, we need true and natural patterns of life.
Birds having access to water in a desert is peace. Similarly, we can create a little bit of peace for and in our human ecosystem. Kate giving me a place to earn monetary funds so I could buy seeds to grow food WHILE listening to me rant about capitalism and question the role of money in my life and our interactions has given me peace. Not meeting resistance when this topic is explored is something many of us don’t know because we have been on tracts for so long. I’m not even saying I’m resting still. I’m far from being ‘natural’ or upholding much of what I believe is best in a human’s life. However, I wish to understand and hope to inspire others to think and seek answers. There is power in rest and if we are truly at ease, we are acts of resistance to the cruel, competitive, exhausting world we otherwise subscribe to. Which, to me, is badass. And awesome. And what we need more of.
A pioneer of the radical rest movement from the Nap Ministry says:
“Your obsession with productivity as a function of your worth is preventing you from tending to your soul.”
In that one line she sums up everything I’ve been trying to say. So if you take nothing else from this essay, just reread that line. We are deeply amazing and interesting and soulful creatures that can create pure magic and kindness and goodness within and around us. It is up to us to do that for ourselves. But it doesn’t always look like ‘doing’ something.
The abandoned cabin at Orchard Canyon on Oak Creek we dream of moving to Wild Heart Farm or something equally awesome to provide radical rest. Photo by Kate Watters
We are poor, damaged beings trying to survive the silly shit we created for ourselves and I believe we can get through it—together. We can help one another by being peaceful. We can create spaces of peace by being at rest. However we can also create peace by making rest for others. We all know someone who deserves a nap even more than us right now- why don’t we make a bed for them and watch their kids for one frickin’ hour? We all know someone who deserves a massage because they work hard. Why don’t we take thirty seconds to squeeze their shoulders? F@#$ social parameters keeping us distant and stressed. We can create rest for ourselves and for others without judgment.
At the end of the day, I’m just a confused hippy kid, taking a deep breath and screaming some hopeful s*%! into the ether. I am grateful in my times of rest so I leave you with thanks. Thank you for your time to read these lovingly curated words. Thank you for being intrigued by our potential heightened human connection. Thank you for being a part of Wild Heart Farm Family and this world. Thank you for being such a special wave of existence. You are sacred. Be kind to yourself, my friend. It’ll make it easier to be kind to others. I love you. Do good, be well and rest up!
Sarah in action at Wild Heart Farm harvesting high vibration micro greens
Kristen M. Caldon, Photographer - Insta @photographicexplorer