The one good thing that I enjoyed about lockdown and Covid-19 was that it brought our world to a complete standstill.

In lockdown the capitalist world learnt to be still. With shops it was survival of the financial fittest, for the creative industry and the small shops Covid-19 made it clear that the capitalism of the wider world does not support them. I know for me during lockdown I tried to support the small local shops more as I wanted them to survive. We all lived through a trauma; we consciously or unconsciously learnt about how important trauma first aid is to our mental health. I learnt I enjoy rest and how important rest is to my nervous system and my neurological physical disorder.

My ancestors were hard working people, they came to England with nothing fleeing antisemitic pogroms in Russia in the 1800s. They had to work hard and slowly rose from lower class to middle class.

My paternal grandma worked as a seem mistress in the smutter trade in the East End of London and my grandfather was a tailor and Holocaust survivor who fled Poland first to France and then when the Nazis entered France he hopped on and off boats to get to the UK. My paternal grandparents owned a launderette together and I remember counting the coins from the washing machines and dryers for fun with my sister at my grandparents’ table before they retired.

My maternal grandfather died when my mother was 21 so I never met him, but this meant that my grandma had to go to work. My parents were both born after the Second World War, they were the baby boom generation. All these generations of my family would have had unconscious harsh stigmatising messages about not being productive members of society. If you developed poor mental health then you would have been sick, incompetent, or unwell. To do well, you had to perform well and there was little time for REST. I went to a Jewish nursery and school, where we learnt that from Sunday to Friday G-d worked and then on Shabbat G-d rested.

We are also socialised around the roles in the home.

My mother was forever busy caring for all of us - even now as a grandmother she runs around doing ironing, shopping, running errands for all of us. I am always proud of her when she allows herself an afternoon nap. Sometimes she makes me tired just in all she does for all her children and grandchildren. My dad worked hard to provide for all of us and give us all a good start in life - in his retirement he has allowed himself to slow down a little, but he still does lots of volunteering in the community. On Sabbath and weekends my dad would be catching up with sleep and then would even work after shabbat Saturday night and on Sundays, though rest was still not given the priority.

All this messaging around rest and mental health gets passed on from generation to generation.

Even advertising and the mass media tells us what rest means and that it is not as important as work and being busy with play. Think of the Mars advertising: “A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play”. Clever advertising, huh?

I have been enjoying reading, Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey, the Founder of The Nap Ministry. She digs deep into rest and what it means:

Your body is a site of liberation.
It doesn’t belong to capitalism.
Love your body.
Rest your body.
Move your body.
Hold your body.

I have learnt in adulthood that I am not neurotypical, and I struggle with the concept of rest or being still. But over time I have learnt how rest is important and helps me re-regulate my nervous system which in turn helps me focus better on the tasks at hand.

These are the questions I want to leave you with to think for yourself what rest means to you: