Rest Is Sacred: The Spiritual Truth & The Cultural Lies We Must Unlearn
In our modern world, exhaustion and overwhelm have become so common that they’re almost invisible – it’s as though it’s just culturally accepted that “it’s just the way it is.” We’ve learned to normalize it, to push through it, and to see rest as something that is earned. It’s as though there is some magic rule out there that says, if you don’t push yourself into overwhelm, you’re not worthy of rest. But beneath this conditioning lies a deeper, older truth — one woven into our bodies, our ancestry, and our spiritual DNA:
Rest is sacred.
Rest is our birthright.
Rest is how we return to our wholeness.
And it always has been.
The Cultural Lies We Learned About Rest (and How They Harm Us)
To reclaim rest, we must first name the beliefs that steal it from us. The truth is that most of us walk around carrying internalized messages about rest that were handed to us by systems built on extraction, not well-being. Here are some of the cultural lies many of us have internalized:
“Productivity Equals Worth“ – This belief teaches us that our value is tied to our output — that stillness is wasted time, that slowing down is falling behind, inaction is laziness. But we’re not machines. Our worth is inherent, not earned.
“Rest is Laziness” – This message shames the body for having limits. It labels legitimate biological need as character weakness. But here’s the truth – every living thing on this planet rests. Rest is not laziness — rest is part of the essential cycle of life.
“Only the weak need rest.” – We have been taught to push through, soldier on, grind harder, but in doing so, we’ve abandoned ourselves. Strength isn’t found in self-abandonment — it’s found in self-honoring.
“You can rest once everything is done.” – Oh, the lies we tell ourselves. This is a trap with no exit.
Modern life ensures that “everything” is never done. Rest delayed becomes rest denied.
“Rest must be earned.” – This is, perhaps the most damaging lie of all. It turns a biological necessity into a moral test. And it keeps us disconnected from our own needs in order to feed the machine of our society with our energy.
When we internalize these messages, we begin treating the body as an inconvenience and rest as a guilty pleasure. But the truth is: Rest is not selfish. Rest is not indulgent. Rest is not optional.
Rest is the thing that gives us the capacity to be our very best selves. It is the completion to a fundamental cycle in our existence. Rest is how we heal ourselves physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. And healing — personal, generational, and spiritual — is exactly what this world needs.
Rest Is Not a Luxury — It’s Our Birthright
What I’ve come to understand is that there is a wisdom in our bodies that goes beyond productivity, beyond expectations, beyond the grind of the modern world. It’s the same wisdom that nudges a seed to sprout, the tide to turn, the moon to wax and wane. It is the rhythm that all of creation moves to — expansion and contraction, activity and stillness, doing and being. All life has periods of overwinter and periods of regrowth. We are meant to live by this rhythm. We are built for cycles, not straight lines. This is the essence of what Tricia Hersey expresses in her book “Rest Is Resistance:”
“You are worthy of rest. We don’t have to earn rest. Rest is not a luxury, a privilege, or a bonus we must wait for once we are burned out.”
Her words name that subtle feeling you have that something about the way we operate in our world is wrong. It acknowledges a truth that your soul knows, but you may have forgotten: rest is a spiritual right, not a reward. Reclaiming it is an act of remembering who you are beneath the noise and expectations of the world. It is a sacred way of reconnecting to your own divinity. Hershey reinforces this truth:
“Our bodies and Spirits do not belong to capitalism… Our divinity secures this, and it is our right to claim this boldly.”
Our worth, our gifts, our presence — none of it depends on how much we produce. Rest is not something we must justify. Rest is how our Spirits breath.
When we rest, we soften enough to hear our intuition again. We become spacious enough to feel our emotions fully (which is unbelievably important to our health and well-being. We reconnect with the sacred rhythms that our distant ancestors lived by before grind culture ever existed.
Rest is how we come home to ourselves.
