The REST Story

Despite a high-pressure job producing films, Tracee Stanley had everything under control. Prioritizing her own wellbeing made her more effective and efficient at work—which gave her time and space to prioritize her own wellbeing.

-  BEN NUSSBAUM AND MALLORY CORBIN

“I remember I was feeling very blissful,” she says. “I had ten different projects I was working on that I was excited about.” The company’s owner interrupted her bliss by stopping her in the hallway and asking her why she wasn’t running around frantically like everyone else in the office.

“Oh, this is so interesting,” she remembers thinking. “You are so invested in grind culture that you don’t see I’m more productive than anyone in the office—because I’m rested. You expect to be able to see chaos.”

The foundation of mental, physical, and spiritual health is rest. But “we live in a culture that rest shames us from a very young age,” says Karen Brody, author of Daring to Rest. “Rest, to me, is the most radical act you can do. It takes courage to change a paradigm. It’s daring because you will be shamed—perhaps by people you love.”

Surrender to the Yin Time

Josefa Rangel is an internist who practices intuitive medicine. Working in high-pressure San Francisco, she sees patients who are exhausted and struggling, even though they are young, eat well, and exercise. The missing ingredient is rest.

Rangel’s credentials include a medical degree from Stanford and a fellowship at the CDC. She acknowledges the important role of conventional medicine. But resting well requires a whole different approach. “It’s not a laundry list—do these ten things. It’s more poetic. Surrender to the darkness. Surrender to the yin time. ... Allow yourself to be in a state of rest, of non-doing. Your whole nervous system starts to unfold.”