Returning from a reflective 10-day trip to Algeria, I felt drawn to rewatch the Elvis movie. While I've never been a huge fan of his music, his journey holds many lessons.
[Photo] Rediscovering the streets of Algiers and its diverse architecture amid celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the start of the Algerian War of Independence. The Grande Post Office is in the background.
As Elvis Presley starts to experience fame and go on long tours away from home, his mother warns him: “Do not wear yourself out trying to get rich” - a bible verse from King Solomon the wise…
The verse could be an anti-burnout slogan. Modified, it might say: “Do not wear yourself out trying to get rich, land a promotion, or chase goals”.
It implies that nothing is worth your inner-wellbeing or your soul’s integrity and that rest or energy stewardship is sacred.
Sadly, capitalist work culture is obsessed with productivity. It substitutes productivity for meaning, perpetuating the epidemic of burnout, anxiety, and depression rooted in a chronic sense of meaninglessness and powerlessness.
Not under my watch.
Rest as an act of liberation
Rest is a perennial theme in coaching because high achievers and changemakers feel guilty for resting, including during breaks. Letting go of beliefs about being ‘lazy’ or falling behind is the work of liberation from oppressive narratives that can drive us to exhaustion. Many of us carry internalised beliefs about being ‘lazy’ from the intergenerational impacts of colonialism, slavery, and feudalism - held in place by patriarchal authoritarianism.
Happily, my clients eat limiting beliefs for breakfast. They are free to reschedule sessions to match their energy and intuition. They are not on a coaching programme, they are on a liberation journey. Liberation is not a matter of session time but of insight. And they are accountable to themselves before anyone else including me.
Since slavery has been (legally) abolished, no one can force you to work (though you may face consequences for challenging expectations and norms). You have the freedom to make counter-cultural choices about how you live and work and you may find that the consequences of challenging norms are ultimately very worthwhile. You can choose to align with your deeper truth rather than misguided external agendas. By liberating yourself, you liberate others, experience your true power, and create a new paradigm.
The power of stillness
While hard work and determination can be virtues, let me remind you: rest is human and sacred. It’s part of the energy rhythms of life that make up a meaningful life where you take action and then take rest. Respecting these energy rhythms means you can access your higher cognitive faculties and live from your zone of wisdom or genius (not your zone of exhaustion).
Create space for stillness. It’s from the stillness that your genius can emerge:
Switch off your notifications
Close your email
Cancel meetings
Activate your out of office message
Spend time in nature, or doing nothing.
Cut back on projects and prioritise effectively (do an energy audit or a stop, start, maintain inventory).
Remember what truly matters - live from your values.
Lean into silence and spaciousness to hear your inner-voice (and help others hear their own).
In other words, reclaim your energetic sovereignty. Prioritise with compassionate ruthlessness.
Sadly, Elvis didn’t heed his mother’s anti-burnout wisdom and died at the age of 42 from a heart attack amidst drug use, poor diet, and a gruelling performance schedule.
In a world of escalating conflict and climate urgency resulting from old systems that need to be evolved, it’s more important than ever to create time and space to activate our higher cognitive faculties - insight, empathy, innovative ideas. As the African proverb goes: the times are urgent, let us slow down.
Whether it’s facing the horrors of the Israel-Gaza violence or the melting ice caps, the world doesn’t need more of us to feel exhausted and disempowered but calls for strong spirits, open hearts, and sharp minds ready to do what they can.
When you rest, you come into stillness, replenish your energy, and activate your wisdom- this can transform toxic socioeconomic systems when followed through with action.
I leave you with the Nap Ministry Founder Tricia Hershey’s statement: Rest is a political act.
Have a restful week,
Amina
p.s. Coincidentally, a dear client alerted me to this BBC article analysing the rise of the rest revolution called “why doing nothing is intentionally good for us”. It includes commentary on how the drive for profit and productivity funnelled entire post-baby boomer generations into exhaustion; and what to do about it e.g. deciding to live at a slower pace to heal the acquisitive, never-satisfied mindset capitalism promotes.
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