'I'm a wellbeing practitioner and I want to start a rest revolution'

“I’m calling it a rest revolution because I think that’s what this is,” the 47-year-old muses. “I’m asking people to live in a different way, I’m asking people to think differently. So it does feel quite revolutionary. If you ask someone who is busy all the time, taking five minutes for themselves might feel really alien and revolutionary. But I hope people will slow down more because our nervous system cannot take the pace we are moving at.”

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Emma has recently released her first book – Why Prioritising Rest Will Change Your Life: Join the Rest Revolution - and hopes with it to challenge “a cultural obsession with busyness” and “the idea that rest is lazy”. The book challenges the idea that rest is something we have to earn. Instead, Emma argues that rest should be considered a fundamental foundation of a healthy, fulfilling life and encourages readers to make it a priority.

“In many ways, rest feels like the most powerful act of rebellion we can participate in right now,” says Emma.

“We live in a world that celebrates being busy and productive, where we’re made to feel lazy if we choose to stop. Choosing to slow down, be still and reconnect with ourselves feels revolutionary.”

The book explores the physical, mental, emotional and energetic benefits of rest, why so many people struggle to prioritise it, and how simple practices can be incorporated into everyday life.

Part memoir and part practical self-help guide, the book draws on Emma’s own experiences including more than a decade of exploring rest as part of her wellbeing path, alongside over six years of teaching rest practices to others.

Through periods of chronic pain, recurring illness and constant stress, she discovered that rest could play a significant role in supporting her wellbeing, and she says you don’t need to reach burnout or exhaustion before you start paying attention to resting.

“I’ve had the opportunity through writing the book to really delve into the science behind why rest is so important,” she says.

“I knew it anecdotally from my own life and through helping clients but this gave me time and space to actually look into the science of why it’s so important and think about why we don’t do it and how society has made us believe that rest is lazy.”

“I wrote this book for the person who is tired but keeps pushing, who feels guilty when they sit down, or who tells themselves they will rest when everything else is finished,” she adds.

“I want people to realise that they don’t have to wait until they’re completely exhausted before they give themselves permission to stop. In fact incorporating rest into your life will make you healthier and more productive.”

- To order a book, visit wellbeingwithemma.com