By: Ella Pendlington, SFU Student

Content warning: brief mention of slavery.

I knew beginning university would be a big change. Now that I’ve finished my first semester, I wouldn’t say it’s the content that’s been the biggest challenge, but the pressure that has suddenly been put on me. I took three courses while working one to two shifts a week, and at times, this was enough for me to feel overstimulated. Yet when I looked at my peers, it felt as though I wasn’t doing enough. Perhaps they too were struggling, but just didn’t show it. 

According to Universities Canada, burnout is an experience that close to 90% of university students will encounter. Most students are worn out — mentally, physically, spiritually, or perhaps all three — yet continue to work their hardest at an unsustainable pace. Surviving on caffeine and pulling all-nighters have become the norm. We’re often so busy we forget to take the time to rest, but it’s essential for our well-being. 

Only during my recent time off did I realize just how tired I was. Tired from schoolwork, but also from all of the time I had spent worrying about the future. Family members and friends assured me university would be a place to explore, learn, take unique classes, have fun, and eventually (keyword being “eventually”) figure out your area of study. However, it feels as if there’s an expectation to have a rough plan for your future as soon as you start your first term, with people constantly asking, “What’s your major?” Meanwhile, I feel I’ve barely scratched the surface of all the subjects I can explore in the arts. 

When I was off school for winter break, I could spend time doing what I actually wanted to do. Taking things slower, I reconnected with myself. With no deadlines looming over me, I truly rested. 

Grind culture describes the mindset that overworking is the only path to success. When I reflect on it, I realize how much time I have spent basing my worth to what I have accomplished. The issue with this mindset is that over time you come to feel like you’re never doing enough. 

Tricia Hersey, activist, theologian, and author of Rest is Resistance: a Manifesto, explains in NPR Life Kit’s podcast that grind culture is rooted in white supremacy and capitalism. The exploitation of people for profit and the treatment of people as machines can be traced back to the Transatlantic slave trade. Hersey reflects on how her ancestors disrupted the system by slowing down production on cotton plantations. For Hersey, rest is a form of racial healing. Growing up, she was taught she had to work 10 times harder than her other classmates because, as a Black person, she’d have to navigate systemic racism.  

That’s one big takeaway from Hersey’s work, and something I’m trying to teach myself: rest isn’t something we earn. We rest “simply because it’s our divine and human right to do so,” says Hersey. Hersey is also the founder of Nap Ministry, an organization dedicated to the healing power of rest and rest as resistance. It began in 2016 when, after experiencing burnout while in seminary, working and raising her child, she held a performance art piece where strangers napped in public.

In choosing rest, we’re pushing back against an ideology that is rooted in racism and exploitation. Prioritizing relationships with family and friends, choosing to sleep rather than cram for an exam, learning and practising how to say no — these are all acts of resistance. Quiet quitting, which has to do with going to work and giving enough, but not necessarily going above and beyond, is one way people today are actively resisting capitalism in a system that expects unsustainable productivity to earn a living.

To me, rest is about connecting and reconnecting with oneself; therefore, it may look different for people.

Sleep is only one form of rest. While undoubtedly important for both our mental and physical health, rest is anything we’re truly doing for ourselves that isn’t keeping us on capitalism’s clock. Watching a favourite TV show or movie that you’ve seen multiple times but brings comfort, or putting on headphones and listening to music while going for a long walk are a few things I love to do. 

The university setting is a fast-paced environment that isn’t built for everyone to succeed. If I’m feeling the way I am one semester into my degree, I think this reflects a need to change what, arguably, is a toxic setting. According to Hersey, choosing to rest and being able to rest peacefully requires a complete culture shift. 

Not everyone has the privilege of being able to rest and take on less without consequence. Just because you choose to take the time to slow down doesn’t mean the rest of the world does. It’s also not easy to choose rest when you see others around you doing more. It’s human nature to look at others to discern if we’re doing enough. But the truth is, everyone is on their own journey, works at their own pace, and some people face more systemic barriers than others. 

Hersey teaches us that in order to reframe our understandings, we must choose to “rest through the guilt and shame” that may come up, and recognize that those feelings are evidence of our brainwashing. According to her, reclaiming rest requires a “slow uncovering, a slow mercy and grace towards yourself.” 

As a society we not only need to recognize the importance of rest, but prioritize it. Many people end up changing their majors as they progress through their degree, which is proof that we don’t always know what our futures hold. As the new year begins, I believe we all need to be more gentle with ourselves and with each other. One of the ways I’m planning to prioritize rest is to establish a reading routine, where I set aside time every night to wind down with a personal book before bed. I hope you too allow yourself to slow down and rest in whatever way you choose to do so. You deserve it.