This double entendre explains pretty well where my head is here at the start of 2023.
RACE from the standpoint of realizing we are always racing around, always busy, resting only to work harder and more, executing to do lists we can never complete, play dates, blind dates, zoom dates, bigger, better, faster… ARRGH!
Is your heart racing? Mine is. Let’s inhale deeply, now exhale. Feels a bit better.
And RACE from the standpoint of understanding my inherent racism, my privilege, my “niceness” and how I can do better by working on myself and helping others in understanding their inherent racism and their part in upholding a culture of white omnipotence.
Part 1
I need REST not a RACE and I believe we all need REST. When we are racing around we miss opportunities to connect with ourselves, to connect with others, to reflect, to recharge, to simply BE the DIVINE HUMANS we are.
Racing around leads to exhaustion and exhaustion leads to less creativity, more divisiveness (‘cause we’re grouchy), less joy, and more control (by those who want to get as much from us as they can because we are too tired to resist).
I’ll show you what I mean. While at the grocery store this week, the woman checking me out asked “So, how were your holidays?” I gave the standard answer, “They were good, and you?” She sighed and replied, “Oh, they were o.k. When I wasn’t working I was racing around trying to get presents and it was pretty exhausting but ya know, that’s the holiday spirit.” I nodded in agreement and shared a half smile.
Let’s break this down, we both missed an opportunity to connect more genuinely as we were too tired to be creative and beaten down so much that we actually found the negative in the things that are supposed to bring us joy. And who gets to determine that anyway? Who said running around buying presents for everyone and their brother is what we’re supposed to do and it’s supposed to make us, and the people who receive them happy?
Ah ha, that’s where the control comes in! When we are exhausted we are more easily controlled - buy more, do more, lose weight, be quiet, be nice, be perfect and do all of these things for yourself while everyone else figures it out alone.
Well, I am slowing my roll in 2023 to create deeper connections, to understand myself better, to spend time focusing on not what “they” tell me is important but instead on work I find important (See Part II coming out next week).
How you may ask, am I going to do this?
I am going to intentionally use my time to slowly break away from, “Toxic Grind Culture” and who better to help guide me through this practice in 2023 than Tricia Hersey, Nap Bishop of the Nap Ministry herself. Check out her book, Rest Is Resistance - A Manifesto and if that’s too much of a commitment and will cut into your “resting time” carve out an hour to listen to her on the We Can Do Hard Things podcast - No More Grind: How to Finally Rest with Tricia Hersey.
I promise you won’t be racing around after reading or listening to Tricia’s work, she will help you rest even if you have ‘no time to do so.’
Want to start now? Set a timer on your phone for 1, 5 or 10 minutes, close your eyes and daydream.
If you have too many ‘open files’ racing around your head, use this prompt to get you started…”What was the BEST thing you did in 2022?” Go back to that moment in time and allow your mind to wander. Who else was there? What sounds were going on around you? What did it feel like to be in that moment? And ask yourself, what does that story you just recalled mean to you today?
When your timer has gone off, congratulate yourself, you have just rested.
Articulated Intelligence works with individuals and organization to help create more meaningful connections through stories, reframing networking, and business coaching.