Rest as our birthright

I recently heard someone say at a conference, that resting is our birthright.

Wow!

And yet here we are, in a culture that shames us and guilt trips us for taking rest.

Rest seems to be a dirty word.

It is so deeply embedded into our minds and bodies, this non-stop, go go go, must be productive to show we are worthy as a human beings, that we just don't know how to rest.

And I am not talking about long periods of rest, or even short periods of time off (which I am aware is just not possible for some people). I am talking about the mind-state of rest, which can happen in 5 minutes.

We live in an overly-stimulating world, which keeps us in the bio chemistry of stress and over-production of cortisol and adrenaline. Our bodies have become habituated to stress.

Its no wonder when we have a couple of minutes to rest that our bodies simply just cannot slow down enough to completely rest.

What is it we all need to be saying to each other, to give each other permission to rest?

How can we collectively shift this norm of keeping busy all the time?

Here are some affirmations that I wrote on rest. If the word safe does not work for you. Please replace with something like 'I am comfortable to rest', or 'I soften into rest'.