What if everything you were taught about rest is keeping you from it? In this deeply personal episode, Lesley shares the quiet unraveling that happens when your identity has been built around performance, productivity, striving, and output and your soul can no longer sustain the pace. After years of building a career, raising the bar, becoming a wife and mother, and trying to hold everything together inside a culture that glorifies exhaustion, she began asking a deeper question: How did we get here? This conversation explores the difference between resting from your life and living from a rested place. Through the lens of nervous system regulation, embodiment, faith, motherhood, and identity, we unpack the cultural conditioning that taught us rest is a reward and the spiritual reframe that changes everything: In the Kingdom, we work from rest, not toward it. Lesley shares the story behind taking a month-long leave from her career, the discomfort of stepping away from performance, and the realization that true rest is not about doing less , it is about returning to who you are beneath striving. This episode is for the woman who is exhausted from trying to “rest correctly.” The woman whose nervous system no longer responds to productivity hacks, vacations, or checking boxes.The woman whose soul is asking for something deeper. In this episode, we explore: • Why modern culture normalizes collective unrest • The nervous system impact of constant performance and hypervigilance • The difference between performative rest and embodied rest• “Rest as reward” vs “rest as origin” • Why hustle produces output but rest produces fruit • The connection between identity, nervous system regulation, and Sabbath• Motherhood, capacity, and the invisible labor women carry • Rest as unbecoming and returning to your true self • How to begin practicing active, embodied rest in everyday life Key reflections from this episode: • “True rest is not recovery from your life. It is a posture within your life.” • “Our being informs our doing. Our doing should never determine our being.” • “Rest is not a reward. It is a requirement.” • “Hustle produces output, but rest produces fruit.” Listener Reflection Place one hand on your chest and ask yourself: “What would it feel like to do this next thing from a place of rest instead of striving?” Loved this episode? Share it with the woman who needs rest. If this episode resonated, leave a five star review wherever you listen and share your reflections with me on Substack and Instagram. Come find me. 📩 hello@thekindredjourney.com 📖 Substack — thekindredjourney.substack.com 🎙 Spotify — The Kindred Journey 🎙 Apple Podcasts — The Kindred Journey ▶️ YouTube — youtube.com/@lesleyalberts-i7p 📷 Instagram — @lesley_the_kindred_journey A note on this work. The Kindred Journey offers coaching, somatic practices, and educational conversations intended to support personal growth, nervous system awareness, embodiment and emotional awareness. Everything shared through this podcast, email, website, and related content is rooted in personal experience, education, and perspective, and is provided for informational and educational purposes only. This content is not medical or mental health advice, and it is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or replace professional medical, psychological, or mental health care. Please consult a licensed healthcare provider or qualified mental health professional regarding any medical or mental health concerns. The Kindred Journey New episodes every Thursday. Remember, you are not alone. You are seen. Heard. Understood. Loved.
