Welcome to the Black Girl Burnout podcast.

Kelly here.

And today I want to talk about rest and the importance of opting out of a booked and busy mentality and opting into rest and reflection.

I'm going to talk about where I think the cultural and Western values have influenced us as black women to constantly feel the need to be go, go,

going and never resting. And talk about the influence of social media on how people perceive rest.

And then talk about four ways that we can really prioritize rest in our lives, which will lead to, of course,

a healing practice for today. But first, I want to talk about myself. When it comes to this

concept of rest, it is the one thing I think I still struggle with. After being years on this journey of burnout prevention and

self-care and mindfulness, the concept of true rest still is a struggle for me. I am a natural

overachiever. I love to say yes to things, say yes to too many things. I want to do everything.

I'm like greedy for knowledge, greedy for getting involved in things. I'm nosy. I, you know, have,

I guess, some measure of FOMO. And I just, if I'm excited about a thing, I want to be in it.

I want to be doing. I want to be going. And I'm also extremely hard on myself. And I push myself through

physical pain, which I'm sure so many of you can understand this. I push myself through

all manner of struggle and exhaustion

to do the things that I think are important.

And learning the concept of rest and unlearning,

the underpinnings, and the mental blocks and myths

that keep me wanting to go, go, go

has been at times painful.

It has been extraordinarily difficult work for me.

And it involves so many of the things I talk about.

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