When was the last time you felt truly rested?

Rest is Resistance | The Rest Experience | The Art of Rest

I struggle to rest. I mean, I can lie on the sofa and I can sit in the garden looking as if I am not doing anything, but my mind is always active and busy. I fuel my busy brain by reading books and scrolling the internet. I have many, many different ideas, often all at once, and I fill two notebooks (Moleskine Cahiers XL - one for morning pages and one for lists and other notes) around every six weeks. This is surprising to me because for now, all of my work is self-directed. I have no external boss telling me what to do and still I get stressed!

I noticed this tendency more when recently the doctor told me to rest following knee pain.

“When you say rest…” I began. “Is gentle stretching allowed?”

“No, nothing,” she said. I looked up from my knee, which was now throbbing from her poking it to see where it hurt the most, to her. “For at least a week.”

“And then it will get better?”

“Well, let’s see, shall we?”

This meant a week off from indoor bouldering, which I have been doing two or three times a week for two years. (As an aside, I think the injury was caused by an intense weeding session of my overwintering cabbage patch, not from climbing!)

I took her advice, massaged my knee with ibuprofen gel and lay with my feet up on the sofa every evening for a week. But in that spare time, I began to research publishers and agents and submission slots and my mind went spiralling into overdrive. I ended the week with no knee pain but feeling less rested than at the start of the week.

A couple of weeks following that, I signed up for a workshop at the brilliant Forthwrite Festival celebrating women writers over 50. The workshop was led by Akila Richards and entitled: The Rest Experience. Inspired by the work of Tricia Hersey, The Nap Ministry and her book Rest is Resistance, Akila’s workshop invited us to consider rest and to experience it while we lay down on the floor. I unrolled my dusty yoga mat, picked out the cobwebs, then lay down. I was unused to lying on the floor and my back felt uncomfortable, I didn’t know whether to bend my knees or have them straight. But when Akila spoke poetry to us and sang to us, soothing though it was, my overriding thought was, I am exhausted. And since that workshop, the idea of rest and what it really means for me has been occupying my mind.

During the workshop, in my notebook, I wrote:

imagine
        a world where
               rest is valued as much
                           as productivity

because something I’ve learned with all the research I’ve been involved in during the past few years is that our thoughts and what happens to us and how we live our lives is not solely caused by us as individuals. Since the workshop, I’ve found another book - The Art of Rest by Claudia Hammond - which goes deeper into this idea as well.

Politics, society, history (collective as well as family), stories (mythical and autobiographical) all have a bearing on where we’ve ended up and what we tell ourselves.

It is up to us to shift the narrative.

It is up to us to take some time to rest and be. Away from the ‘shoulds’ and ‘musts’ and the thinking and planning and preparing for the future.

And with that said, I will be taking a break next week from workshops and from this newsletter to spend some time with my family in Swansea. Which will hopefully be restful!!

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Writing Invitations

I feel rested when…

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Imagine a restful place, or write about where you are now if you want to feel more grounded. Describe it. Use your five senses: what can you see, smell, touch, taste, hear?

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If rest was an animal, it would be…

If rest was a type of weather, it would be…

If rest was a food, it would be…

If rest was a piece of furniture, it would be…

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Linger for a few minutes. Read through what you’ve written. Underline a phrase you like to go deeper with. Write it on a fresh page and freewrite from there.

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Then consider:

What was your mother’s/grandmother’s attitude to rest and/or work?

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Creative Writing Workshops

Sepia Summer: Two-Part Creative Writing Course

Long, slow, hot days. Deckchairs, ice cream, sandcastles, splashing in the waves. What do you remember about the summers of your past?
Maybe there’s a particular summer you always return to in your mind or maybe your summers have merged into a golden glow.

In this 2-part creative writing course, we take a nostalgic look at summer memories and explore how to turn them into a piece of writing.

Online (Zoom)

Friday 6 June - 10-12noon
& Friday 20 June - 10-12noon

To book a place on the online workshops, click here.

OR

In-person (Chequer Mead, East Grinstead)

Saturday 28 June - 10-12noon
& Saturday 12 July - 10-12noon

To book a place on the in-person workshops, click here.

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Regular events with me (Mel Parks)

Online

Rewild: A weekly guided creative writing hour

Rewild your writing! Connect with the seasons, moon cycles, nature as well as ancient stories & wisdom. Experiment, explore, break free of writing conventions & celebrate your creativity.
Prompts offered, followed by quiet time to write, a check in half way through, then sharing at the end.
Series of 11 weekly hour-long sessions.

For paid subscribers:

Tuesdays 2-3pm (UK time)

Begins again on 29 April.

Ends 15 July (break 27 May).

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Online

My Book Writing Adventure - Support Group on Zoom

My Book Writing Adventure is a gentle, experimental, pick ‘n’ mix, self-directed book coaching programme for people with full enough lives who are driven to write a book despite everything.

For paid subscribers:

All UK time and planned to coincide with the full moon
2025
TODAY 11 April | 9.30 - 10.30am

Friday 9 May | 9.30am - 10.30am

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In person

Becoming a Writer: Monthly Creative Writing Group

A monthly creative writing workshop for beginners. Plenty of fun writing prompts, games and activities to get your creative juices flowing.

Chequer Mead, East Grinstead

Tuesday 13 May | 7-9pm

Click here to find out more and to book a place.

Until next time…