About Just Rest
Don’t choose between getting enough rest and making the change you want to see in the world. You can do both!
Welcome to Just Rest, the newsletter for passionate change agents who are feeling the burnout from their relentless drive. Here, we explore rest as a radical act of justice, drawing on ancient wisdom and modern science, the spiritual and the practical.
Every edition of Just Rest will inspire you with reflections on why rest is so elusive (spoiler alert: racism, patriarchy, and toxic capitalism are root causes). You'll get practical tools to craft a personalized rest practice and connect with fellow rest rebels who believe in changing the world by reclaiming our right to rest.
Meet Nicole — the author and burnout recovery coach
One of the most important things about me: I cannot resist making change
.It’s why I work with change agents. I AM a change agent.
I learned that organizations really liked to hire me for this quality – to start and lead innovative new programs and initiatives, and put to rest some past programs that had reached the end of their lifespan.
If you’ve had this experience, you know. It might be good for getting hired, not so good for the long haul.
After months or years, I would gain traction with the changes they claimed to want. But then, the resistance from those clinging to the status quo would grow louder, and support for change would dwindle.
I loved what I was doing, but the resistance burned me out.
I learned very early that I needed to take care of myself to survive and even thrive in these stressful situations. I discovered yoga and meditation in 2004 and haven’t looked back since. I loved it so much that I became a Registered Yoga Teacher at the 500-hour level and I have done specialized training in breath (pranayama), meditation including iRest yoga nidra, restorative yoga, and trauma-sensitive yoga, and am also a Reiki Master. Most often, you’ll see me teaching and practicing restorative yoga and meditation geared toward bringing you (and me) real, deep rest.
In addition to this yoga and meditation stuff, I went from being a Pulitzer-aspiring journalist right out of college to feeling the wild and totally unexpected call to Christian ministry in the early 2000s. I went to Chicago Theological Seminary, graduated with a Master of Divinity, and then was ordained in 2004 in the United Church of Christ. I worked with at-risk youth, then transitioned to and fell in love with coaching, training and supporting people who were exploring their own life purpose and calling, often in executive-level positions in the denomination.
If you want to connect with someone who truly gets change-agent burnout, subscribe to Just Rest.
My Identities
Since I’m founding an intersectional feminist burnout recovery community and newsletter, it’s important that I am honest with you about my identities:
I'm a straight, single, cisgender, white, U.S.-born, neurotypical, educated woman who grew up in Nebraska of all places. (No, I don’t know how to drive a tractor.) I recognize and admit that I have many points of privilege and strive to continue recognizing how that impacts the ways I relate to others. My experience of being bullied for being a smart girl in a “larger” body was in many ways a painful gift: That experience made me passionate about creating spaces where ALL people feel welcomed, respected and honored. Honestly, that makes all those middle and high school years of putting up with mean girls worth it.
A few more things about me: I am an Enneagram 8 (The Challenger), an ENFJ on the Meyers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator, and a Leo sun sign, a Capricorn moon and a Libra rising. I prefer Apple products, carbon-framed bikes, spending time outside near water, the window seat, audio books, and Julia Child’s recipe for shortcrust (aka pie crust). I struggle to understand why some of y’all love flavored fizzy water so much.
What’s most exciting to me is that this newsletter will offer me a place to bring my whole self – reverend, journalist, yoga teacher, founder, change agent.
My Values
At a low point when starting my business, I was thinking of just closing up shop a lot. I didn’t really want to quit – I knew intellectually that starting a business was hard – but I still couldn’t get the numbers of people 📈 to buy from me that I felt like I should be.
Then, I read Burnout by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski. They wrote about how burnout isn’t always just about sheer exhaustion, but about our mindset. What if I measured success differently, they suggested? 🤯
So instead of measuring goals purely by the numbers, I started measuring success by how I was living my values. One deeply held value of mine is curiosity – the practice of leaning into uncomfortable situations, asking questions and learning from it all.
My goal now is to learn from every experience, let go of what doesn’t work, embrace what does, and adapt quickly.
When I made that shiftI started articulating the underlying values of the Defy the Trend Community:
😴 Rest – You are worthy of rest simply for being you. No justification necessary.
🤗 Caring – We support each other while we create this countercultural rest movement.
🧐 Curiosity – We ask questions rather than turn to judgment. Learning and growing are lifelong endeavors.
✅ Authenticity – We show up as our whole, messy, imperfect selves. No need to waste energy hiding who you are.
👥 Relationships – Nothing beats being supported and transformed in an intentionally diverse community that affirms your inherent value over and over again.
Everytime we gather, we live into these values.
If you want a newsletter and community space that strives to align with its values, subscribe.
Subscribe and support
Free subscription
Getting enough rest is a radical act, and should be accessible to all. To offer accessible content, any subscriber will receive three monthly newsletters.
Paid Subscription
As a paid subscriber, you’ll also get access to weekly co-working sessions that integrate regular stretch breaks and the opportunity to meet and be supported by other Rest Rebels. You also get access to the archive of articles.
I’ve seen first-hand the power of radical rest to transform lives and change the world.
Ready to transform your life and change the world through radical rest? Join us!
Become a Founder
Founding members at $120 will get the satisfaction of helping me start a companion “Just Rest” podcast in 2025 and gain exclusive access to more content and to some of my guests from that podcast. Become a founder and help me bring the perspectives of spirituality, science, religion to the conversation about justice and rest.
