There’s a shift afoot. A gentle, growing recognition that, despite what we were taught, rest is not a reward for finishing everything; it’s essential to being human, and part of what makes life whole. More and more, people are naming it, honouring it, reclaiming it. Not just because they’re tired, although many are, but because they see that rest is where clarity lives. Where creativity wakes up. Where we come back to ourselves as individuals, and as a collective.

Rest invites us to return. To a gentler rhythm. To our breath and our body. To a life that doesn’t race past meaning in perpetual pursuit of more. These books invite us to brave that return. Each one offers a doorway; some through research, others through poetry, still others through story. Together, they can help reshape how we understand rest. Not as something we get to do after everything else or in order to become more productive, but as something essential, something intentional, something restorative we do for its own sake. 

So find your way in. One page, one pause, one deeper exhale at a time.

‍

Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less

by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

Pang makes a bold claim—rest isn’t the opposite of work, it’s part of it. Drawing from science and story, He shows how the most productive people rest on purpose. It’s structured, it’s intentional, and it might just change how you build your day.

‍

Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto

by Tricia Hersey

This isn’t just about naps. It’s about reclaiming your humanity. Hersey writes with fire and tenderness, especially to those who’ve been told rest must be earned. It’s spiritual, political, deeply embodied. A revolutionary read.

‍

‍Nap Ministry's Rest Deck: 50 Practices to Resist Grind Culture

by Tricia Hersey

From the author of Rest is Resistance, these are fifty small invitations to stop. Breathe. Lie down. Beautifully designed and spiritually grounded. One card at a time, this deck shifts your relationship to rest.

‍

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle

by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski

Burnout isn’t just emotional—it’s biological. These brilliant sisters walk you through what stress does to your body, and how to help it let go. Smart, funny, practical. For the ones who’ve kept going far too long and need a map back home.

‍

‍The Art of Rest: How to Find Respite in the Modern Age

by Claudia Hammond

Based on the world’s largest rest study, this one’s full of surprises. Thoughtful and data-driven, it just might convince you that reading alone on a couch is peak performance.

‍

‍

Sacred Rest:Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity

by Saundra Dalton-Smith, M.D.

Dr. Dalton-Smith identifies seven types of rest—physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, sensory, and creative—and provides guidance on how to achieve each. This book is especially insightful for those from a Christian faith perspective.

‍

How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy

by Jenny Odell

This one is designed to disrupt. Odell offers a way to turn your attention away from screens and systems that monetize your focus, and toward the slow, sacred ordinary. If you’re looking for less self-help and more philosophical compass, check it out.

‍

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

by Katherine May

What happens when life stops? May gives language to the seasons when we’re not blooming. Grief, illness, change—she writes through it all with grace. A beautiful meditation on honouring the slow and letting the dark do its work.

‍

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

by Greg McKeown

If everything is important, nothing is. McKeown shows you how to cut through the noise and name what actually matters. This is about rest for the decision-makers, the boundary-setters, the people learning to say no without guilt.

‍

In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed

by Carl Honoré

Slowness as a lifestyle. A movement. An act of clarity. If you’ve ever felt time speeding up and longed to step outside it—this one will meet you there.

‍

The Book of Delights

by Ross Gay

A year of daily joys. Small ones. Weird ones. Soulful ones. This book is a quiet practice in presence. A reminder that delight is a kind of rest too.

‍

The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man

by Abraham Joshua Heschel

A classic. A reverent meditation on sacred time. For those who honor the Jewish tradition—or anyone drawn to the idea that time itself can be holy. Sabbath not as rule, but as refuge.

‍

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

by John Mark Comer

If you’re from a Christian faith background and feel like hurry is eating your soul, Comer offers a reset. Practical. Pastoral. And unashamedly countercultural.

‍

The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere

by Pico Iyer

Travel writer turned stillness evangelist, Iyer shows how staying put can be its own kind of journey. He’s poetic, spare, and wise. Read this when your body is home but your mind is still running laps.

‍

Rest Is Sacred: Reclaiming Our Brilliance Through the Practice of Stillness

by Octavia F Raheem

Written like a blessing. Octavia’s voice is gentle, with the strength and sturdiness of a deep, embodied wisdom. For those ready to stop pushing and start listening.

‍

‍