Rest Is Your Most Rebellious Act

My house burned down and taught me something radical about rest.

I don't mean the kind of rest you earn after a 12-hour day. I mean the kind that saves your life when everything else fails.

For decades, I lived on what I call the "stress hit." My nervous system had been on high alert since childhood, running on adrenaline and cortisol like rocket fuel. I thought this was normal. I thought this was strength.

My version of rest was drinking, drugs, and partying until 5am. Then getting up and doing it all again.

I was performing functionality while internally burning.

When Your System Says Enough

The breakdown came after my house literally went up in flames. Severe PTSD. Unresolved trauma. A nervous system that had been running on empty for so long it forgot how to stop.

It felt like a wildfire had devastated my internal landscape.

I was afraid in my own body, though I hid it well. The corporate scripts and fluorescent lights that had defined my TV production career suddenly felt like prison bars.

That's when I discovered something that changed everything: rest isn't indulgent. It's regulation.

What I had been calling rest was actually escape. Running away from the big emotions that rise to the surface when you finally stop moving.

True rest is different. It's learning to feel safe within yourself.

The Stress Addiction Nobody Talks About

Here's what I learned about my nervous system: it was literally addicted to stress.

Even now, I can sit at my laptop all day, completely unproductive, just seeking that familiar hit of urgency. It's hardwired from my first decade at Pinewood Studios, minimum 12-hour days for months on end.

My system learned that survival depends on constant readiness. Rest felt like abandoning my post.

Sound familiar?

You're not alone. 79% of UK adults experienced work-related stress in the past year, with 35% reporting high or extreme stress levels. We're living in a culture that profits from our exhaustion.

The science backs this up: 

chronic stress affects our autonomic nervous system

, creating dysregulation that changes our physiology and leads to serious health issues.

The Inheritance We Never Asked For

But here's the part that really gets me: this isn't just personal. It's generational.

We've inherited patterns of burnout like heirlooms we never asked for. 

Generational trauma passes through epigenetic changes

, creating inherited systems of freeze and hyperarousal.

Our collective inability to rest stems from generations that normalized constant productivity at the expense of wellbeing.

We glorify being busy. We wear exhaustion like a badge of honor.

To know you are enough without achieving anything is an achievement in itself.

Why Rest Became My Rebellion

When I started choosing true rest over escape patterns, people wanted me to stay the same. My changing highlighted their unhealthy behaviors.

Friends thought chanting mantras was weird. That getting up at 5am instead of going to bed at 5am was odd.

Some relationships, I realized, were based on shared victimhood. Others felt threatened by my fighting spirit.

But I couldn't go back to the party-girl, wild, kick-ass TV producer persona I'd hidden behind. I'd tasted something different.

That's why I created Chakra Shake. To prove you don't need drinks and drugs to achieve euphoria. Movement and dancing together is medicine. Ancient, breathing, tribal connection that runs deep.

Rest became rebellion because it required me to believe I deserved peace simply for existing.

Will it fall apart?

My nervous system kept whispering the same fears: everything will fall apart. You won't be able to look after yourself or your loved ones. You'll fall short and miss opportunities.

But when I finally learned to rest without guilt, something magical happened.

I started making the most beautiful connections. I found myself in the right place at the right time more often than not. I felt such deep contentment that material things seemed insignificant.

It's like someone turned the color up on life.

I felt guided to a much more exquisite plan than I could ever come up with myself.

This morning, I did yoga in my garden instead of rushing to my computer. Even though I had so many things I "should" be doing.

It's possible because I know that cultivating stillness and connection makes everything more enjoyable.

The Revolutionary Choice

Choosing rest is choosing to trust something bigger than your fear.

It's saying no to a system that profits from your exhaustion and yes to your own life force energy.

When you rest without guilt, you're not just healing yourself. You're breaking generational patterns that have been passed down like toxic heirlooms.

You're proving that your worth isn't tied to your productivity, and that's terrifying to a culture built on keeping us small and tired.

Rest is rebellion because when you start living from deep connection rather than constant doing, you become magnetic to opportunities that align with your soul rather than just your survival.

You're not being lazy. You're being revolutionary.

To be happy, connected, and healthy in a society that benefits from keeping you dulled down, fearful, and disconnected is the greatest act of rebellion.

When did you last experience rest without guilt?

You have to feel it to believe it. Otherwise, it's just words.

But once you taste that deep peace, that connection, that sense of being guided by something more intelligent than your stress-addicted nervous system, you'll never want to go back.

Your rebellion starts with a single breath. A moment of stillness. A choice to trust that you are enough, exactly as you are.

The revolution begins with rest.