"Rest is Resistance" by Tricia Hersey - A Review

Hello friends,

Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey is a revolutionary book. It's revolutionary because of the way it views rest as a birthright and a human right. That's in a context where many of us, especially Black people, and even more especially Black women, have been long denied our rest. In fact, our rest has sometimes been stigmatised as laziness. It has been denied us because of the capitalist urge to constant productivity and because of the systems that mean that some of us have to work two or three jobs in order to eke out a living and provide for our families.

How I Found This Book

This is a book that I had been hearing about for some time, not least from my sister Lisa, author of Space to Exhale.

Indeed, I myself had adopted the mantra that "rest is resistance". I had urged myself and others to lean into that resistance, to fight against the systems and structures that told us it was wrong, and that made us deny ourselves what we needed, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

And yet I had never read the book (which shows that powerful, necessary messages still have a way of reaching those who need to hear them).

I had heard from many people who had been inspired by this author's words, so when I found myself needing to rest my eyes, I decided to listen to the ebook, which is narrated by Tricia Hersey herself.

What a wonderful experience that was: there's nothing like an author narrating something that is so meaningful to them to give you all the power and emotion of it.

What's Inside

In this book, the author draws together many threads from Black feminist and womanist authors and speakers and writers, from learning, from being raised inside the Black church, and from examples from within her own family of both what happens when people do not rest, and how to make rest a priority.

For this author, rest is liberation, rest is justice, and rest is what we all need to free ourselves of the shackles of white supremacist and capitalist systems and thinking. This message is not just for Black people, though, admittedly, as the people who have been denied it most we also need it most. It is for all people looking for a different paradigm.

After an introduction, the book is divided into four sections: Rest, Dream, Resist, Imagine.

Each section looks at some of the ideas we have taken for granted and the practices that we have to unlearn in order to prioritise rest as a part of our lives. For Tricia Hersey, rest is not as something that has to be saved up for or earned, but is a right that we all have.

The book looks at the importance of making space to dream, to imagine, and how even doing that is an act of resistance, and it is something that is accessible to all of us as we step out of a world that says that we are only useful if we are productive, a mode of thinking that can trace its roots back to the decision to enslave some people in the service of others.

Rest is Resistance is also grounded in the history of the USA and of African Americans on that soil. I particularly resonated with the Maroons who, even during the period of enslavement, took to caverns and other hiding places to carve out a life of freedom and to refuse to be owned and to be subjected to this heinous practice. The same thing happened to some of my ancestors in Jamaica.

No matter what anyone thinks, resistance has always been part and parcel of the period of enslavement. Some of the ancestors of African Americans, and some of my ancestors, freed themselves right from the start.

Making Space For Rest

I was also inspired, inspired by the author's description of creating a space for rest, and of the thoughts, dreams and emotions that resulted, for women, rest is something that does not come easily. We are socialised to keep working, to keep caring for others, to keep producing. Yes, that is true for everyone, because it's the system we live in. But it is more true for women, and even more true for women of the Global Majority. We are seen by some as being there to serve, and our rest is never honoured. As the author points out, even when she said she was taking a sabbatical, there were people willing to interrupt that to ask if she could just do this or that, It's an experience I have had myself, not that I have taken many sabbaticals.

What I Learned

I finished reading this book and thought that, though building rest is a practice that I have started (I'm trying to build the habit of a 30-minute break in my workday), there is so much more to do and so much more for me to unlearn so that I don't feel that I'm cheating someone or defrauding someone when I rest. There's so much more to do to take this as my right.

Though the author is the founder of the Nap Ministry, Rest is Resistance is so much more than a book about napping. It is a book about social justice. It is a book about history. It is a book about our culture. It is a book that takes a long, hard look at white supremacy and capitalism and finds them both wanting. And it is a book that dares to offer an alternative, and that alternative starts and ends with rest.

10 Standout Quotes

I urge you to read Rest is Resistance and see how the words land with you. Here are some of the quotes that resonated with me.

1. "Survival is not the end goal for liberation. We must thrive. We must rest."

2. "Capitalism was created on plantations. The roots of it are violence and theft. We as a culture gloss over this historical truth. But, to dive into the cracks of this reality is where a profound part of your deprogramming from grind culture resides. To understand and meditate on this truth may place us all in a space of grief. We must grieve. Rest supports our grieving by allowing space, and with space we can begin healing from the trauma of grind culture."

3. "The work of liberation from these lies resides in our deprogramming and tapping into the power of rest and in our ability to be flexible and subversive. There are more than two options. The possibilities are infinite, although living under a capitalist system is to be confronted with a model of scarcity. This space makes you falsely believe there is not enough of everything: not enough money, not enough care, not enough love, not enough attention, not enough peace, not enough connection, not enough time. There is abundance."

4. "In elementary school, students are being trained to be workers who can follow orders, memorize facts, and be on time no matter what. Imagination and critical thinking skills are replaced with cookie-cutter learning and standardized testing."

5. "Rest is not a luxury, a privilege, or a bonus we must wait for once we are burned out. I hear so many repeat the myth of rest being a privilege and I understand this concept and still deeply disagree with it. Rest is not a privilege because our bodies are still our own, no matter what the current systems teach us. The more we think of rest as a luxury, the more we buy into the systematic lies of grind culture."

6. "America is not a welcoming place to all bodies. America was built on the backs of Black and Indigenous people who labored without rest for centuries as the country built its economic power. White supremacy became a vehicle to poison the hearts and minds of an entire nation to view human beings as less than divine. Rest is resistance because it is a counternarrative to the script of capitalism and white supremacy for all people."

7. "Marginalized women, specifically Black and Latina women, make up the largest group of laborers in a capitalist system. Our labor historically has been used to make the lives of white women less hectic and more relaxed. So when I hear and see this “filling your cup” language repeated on memes on social media and in the larger wellness community, I realize that our view of rest is still burdened with the lies of grind culture."

8. "I love the idea and concept of simply existing and just being for Black folks. The idea of “you gotta be better than those before you,” Black excellence, and the never-ending cycle to be an inspiration and “model” is tiring, unsustainable, and steeped in white supremacy, respectability politics, and wrecks our self-esteem as Black folks."

9. "We too have a right to build and reimagine our world. We must begin the steady process of testing our possibilities. What can a rested world look like? What could a world where capitalism doesn’t exist be like? What if poverty was no longer created? What could we imagine as alternatives to the toxic individualism that is leading us to collective death? Our imagination has the power to tap into new worlds. We must fight for it. We must envision it. We must see things clearly first before they can be."

10. "We imagine by being in community. We imagine by receiving and offering radical care. We imagine by embracing and running toward our interconnectedness. Individualism is leading us to the path of exhaustion and death. Community care will save us, and we can dream up all the ways to manifest and strategize the care of communities."

Thanks for reading,

Sharon

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I am an anti-racism educator and activist, the author of “I’m Tired of Racism”, and co-host of The Introvert Sisters podcast.

© Sharon Hurley Hall, 2025. All Rights Reserved. This newsletter is published on beehiiv (affiliate link).

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