For Donovan Martin, it started with Mondays.
In high school, he committed to meatless Mondays as his personal day of rest — a weekly practice where he abstained from eating any meat products to rest from harmful consumption cycles.
Now, as co-president of Carleton University’s Environmental Science Students’ Association, Martin knows a thing or two about the environment. He also knows the importance of taking a break from the world to help save it.
“When you realize the benefits from a single day at rest, you want to apply them to further and further days,” he said.
By reducing consumption as an ecological form of a day of rest, Martin said he lessens his electrical dependence and unnecessary waste from plastic and paper products.
“From an environmental standpoint, reducing your consumption with a day of rest allows for a step towards a more ecologically just future,” Martin said.
Once considered a strictly religious or cultural practice, environmental concerns have driven more people to observe a day of rest or no consumption. For example, the Green Sabbath Project, founded in 2019, advocates for “doing nothing” once a week to save the planet. This may include disconnecting from technology, reducing waste, eating plant-based meals and engaging with nature.
Some are motivated by anti-capitalist values, viewing rest as a political act of resistance against systems that promote constant consumption and production.
By reclaiming rest, people can reconnect with their humanity, resist being reduced to machines and challenge the idea that their worth is tied to productivity, according to Gabes Torres, a Philippines-based mental health practitioner and writer.
Resting for the planet
By engaging in rest and reduced consumption, Martin said he learned how collective efforts can impact the environment.
“When you reduce your individual footprint, it might not seem that big, but on a grand scheme, over a course of weeks, months, years or even in your one day, those small cutbacks truly add up,” Martin said.
Rev. Chelsea MacMillan said rest and the earth’s future are interconnected. MacMillan is the New York organizer for GreenFaith, a multi-faith climate and environmental movement working to protect the planet.
“I think the climate crisis is kind of telling us … we need to slow down and live more in tune with the earth,” MacMillan said.
MacMillan described her day of rest as a time to engage in spiritual practice, turn off electronics, meditate and enjoy unscheduled time in nature.
“I think rest is a way for us to connect to something greater than ourselves.”
Spirituality and rest
Brenda Vellino, a Jewish English and human rights professor at Carleton, observes the high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur as days of rest. Along with the weekly Sabbath, these periods of rest begin the evening prior and take the whole day off.
“It’s kind of like stepping outside of time,” Vellino said.
Many who carefully observe the Sabbath refrain from using electronic devices for 24 hours, Vellino said, though the practice varies. She said a portion of her day is spent in the synagogue, followed by meals with loved ones and often concluding with a nap or walk in nature.
“It is counter-cultural and anti-consumerist by design.”
As a professor, Vellino said religious accommodations allow her to observe the Jewish high holidays. However, her demanding work schedule often makes it difficult to incorporate rest practices on a weekly basis.
Vellino said universities could promote a culture of rest by encouraging students to reduce their course load and by continuing to offer reading weeks as a pause point in each semester. Just a single practice of rest each week can yield unquantifiable benefits, she said.
“It always has a kind of renewing effect.”
“I work hard so that I can rest harder,” Weru said.
On Sunday, she attends church in the morning and spends the remainder of her day in one of two ways: resting at home or spending time with her community.
Weru said keeping the Sabbath holy is commanded by the Bible. For her, this means avoiding any vigorous labour or schoolwork. She said practicing the Sabbath gives her “peace of mind because I know that I’m in right standing with God.”
Aside from the mental and physical benefits, Weru said rest allows for relationships to be nurtured through community-building.
“[Rest] not only nurtures your relationships so they grow — it helps you as well.”
Colin Cordner, drawing from his background in Greek and Roman philosophy and Buddhist meditation, frames rest as a practice of self-cultivation rather than mere downtime.
Cordner contrasts the contemporary view of productivity with the ancient understanding of leisure, which was viewed as an opportunity to grow oneself through activities like sports, reading and spiritual practices.
“The purpose of human life was not really to be productive,” he said.
As Carleton’s Buddhist chaplain, Cordner’s journey into meditation began during his undergraduate studies after taking a course in Buddhism. He said he realized meditation isn’t about accomplishing something or cultivating a particular state of increased productivity.
Instead, he said it’s about “allowing myself to be and to deepen naturally.”
Cordner now hosts learn-to-meditate sessions on campus, where he said students often come in expecting to turn off their feelings or thoughts. Instead, he guides them to be kind to themselves and to “just be curious and investigate what’s really going on within oneself, without judgment.”
He said students often realize how much negative self-talk they engage in and begin to develop more space and care for themselves.
According to a study conducted by the American Psychological Association, positive psychology and mediation significantly contribute to improved well-being and reduced negative emotions.
Cordner also pointed out how normalized it is to not rest. Recalling a time when he limited his courseload to four courses per semester to prevent burnout, Cordner said students taking five or six courses while working a part-time job has become the new normal.
“It’s a system which is not built up for the idea of rest, and without rest, without time for reflection, there is actually very little education being made possible.”
The Ontario Student Assistance Program outlines that a student is required to take five courses each term for four years in order to complete a university program in the “standard” amount of time.
However, a 2018 study conducted at the University of British Columbia found this systemic standard across Canadian universities can have extremely negative impacts on students who also work to financially sustain themselves.
According to the study, 68 per cent of working students reported stress and anxiety, with 58 per cent of working students experiencing fatigue. Additionally, the researchers found a significant negative correlation between work hours and both class attendance and study time.
Rest as resistance
While some may argue rest is a privilege, scholars such as Torres frame rest as a fundamental human right, rather than a luxury.
In an era defined by relentless productivity, Torres defines rest as an act of resistance against capitalist systems. Capitalism, according to Torres, thrives on the exploitation of time and the commodification of human beings.
She said capitalism insists “time is scarce and it’s always running out,” fueling a cycle of endless consumption.
This relentless pursuit of productivity leaves individuals feeling disconnected from their own humanity, she said.
However, Torres said individuals can reclaim their humanity by participating in the anti-capitalist practice of rest.
“When we access rest, when we take a breath, when we’re in touch with our bodies, we’re reminded of our flesh, our blood, our breath,” Torres said.
MacMillan extended the idea of rest to GreenFaith’s mission of divesting from a world of mass consumerism and an economy built on fossil fuels. She said protesting, although an inherently unrestful activity, is a necessary act of non-compliance against a system that disconnects people from each other and the earth.
MacMillan said GreenFaith has actively pressured financial institutions, notably Citibank, to divest from fossil fuels through petitions, phone calls, protests and meetings with executives.
At the heart of Torres’ view is the notion of reclaiming time. She said pre-colonial traditions viewed time as circular and abundant — a stark contrast to the linear, scarcity-driven mindset imposed by capitalist and colonialist societies.
“Time, in a way, might be a friend or a living thing that we commune with,” Torres said.
Tricia Hersey, founder of The Nap Ministry, also views rest as a form of resistance.
In her book, Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto, Hersey argues capitalism and white supremacy have used bodies as tools for production and destruction for centuries. She writes that “grind culture” has turned people into human machines willing to donate their lives to a capitalist system that values profits over people.
In response, Hershey calls for a rest movement as a spiritual and political act rooted in care and justice.
“Your body is a site of liberation. It doesn’t belong to capitalism,” Hersey said. “Love your body. Rest your body. Move your body. Hold your body.”
Like Torres, Hersey emphasized that rest is not about recharging to be more productive, but about reclaiming one’s “divine right to rest.” Hersey encouraged people to break free from what she called the “cult of busyness.”
“Rest is a meticulous love practice … Rest is radical because it disrupts the lie that we are not doing enough.”
Featured graphic by Alisha Velji/the Charlatan.
