Resolve to Really Rest
How Restorative Rest and Better Sleep Support Healing From Stress, Chronic Illness and Trauma
While everyone else is sharpening their New Year’s resolutions—promising to wake up earlier, drink less, eat cleaner, move harder, hustle smarter, glow brighter—I want to challenge you to do the exact opposite.
Instead of gearing up to be more motivated, more disciplined, more productive, more fixed…
What if you resolved to rest?
Not the performative kind.
Not “I slept but still feel achy and kinda wrecked.”
Not the kind of rest that exists only to fuel your next output.
I mean real, restorative rest.
The kind that actually repairs what the day—or a lifetime of stress, illness, grief, and trauma—has taken out of you. The kind of sleep that restores muscle, calms a nervous system stuck on high alert, improves cognition, and gives your body a fighting chance to recover instead of just endure.
Because here’s the truth no one sells in January:
You don’t heal by pushing harder.
You heal by letting your system stand down.
Read this fellow Substack article on why the nervous system won’t stop in our hyper connected society.
So this year, I’m offering you an anti-resolution. A quiet rebellion. A permission slip you don’t have to earn.
You do not need to prove your worth through productivity. You do not need to optimize yourself into exhaustion. You definitely do not need a new you for the new year.
You are allowed—strongly encouraged, actually—to rest. To learn what restorative rest really looks like. To sleep without guilt. Or to actually learn what restorative rest looks like to you if sleep is elusive. To stop treating stillness like failure. Yes, stay in bed or horizontal any way you choose!
While the world chases motivation, let’s choose recovery.
No reinvention.
No hustle.
Just rest—and the radical act of letting it be enough.
Lets talk about how.
Forget Resolutions. It’s Time to Rest.
Congratulations, You’re Already Enough and the Cozy Blankets Agree.
Let’s be honest:
2025 didn’t just pass.
It body-checked us in the parking lot, stole our lunch money, and then asked if we’d tried yoga after the bruises healed.
So as January shows up with her color-coded planners, productivity porn, and “NEW YEAR, NEW YOU” chants, some of us are just… blinking WTF. Slowly but with an odd curiosity. From the couch. Wrapped in a blanket burrito of sensory survival.
And bless the Calm app for reading the room.
Instead of telling us to optimize our sleep, monetize our hobbies, fix our trauma, whiten our teeth, hydrate more, and become a spiritually enlightened, the CEO of Calm said:
Nah. You’ve done enough. Let’s rest.
Frankly?
That’s the most radical thing I’ve heard in a long time from an app.
Let’s Review the Highlight Reel No One Brags About
We’re not talking vision boards or six-figure side hustles (though if you did that—respect). We’re talking about the invisible Olympics you competed in daily while the world was on fire as you managed living chronic illness life...cheers to you if you hit any of these.
💙 Did you answer a friend’s call when they were spiraling, even though you were barely holding it together?
That’s enough.
💙 Did you get your kids to school mostly on time, mostly dressed, with lunches that technically contained some form of food?
That’s enough.
💙 Did you show up to an appointment, a meeting, or a family obligation while internally screaming, “I should be horizontal right now”?
That’s enough.
💙 Did you take the dog for a walk—or take yourself to the bathroom—on a hard day?
Elite performance. That’s enough.
💙 Did you simply remain a human person in a system that actively resists actual humanity style needs?
Gold medal.
Anti-Resolutions Are the New Black (And Also the New Pajamas)
The Calm app is officially declaring January 2nd “Do Nothing Day.”
And honestly? It deserves federal recognition in my opinion.
No goal-setting.
No productivity trackers.
No “fix yourself before Valentine’s Day” nonsense.
Just rest.
Real rest.
The kind that doesn’t come with a self-improvement agenda.
The kind where:
You lie under blankets like a Victorian child as though fainting on a uncomfy couch while a painter captures the moment
You cancel plans with zero explanations
You stare at the wall or Netflix binge a new series and call it “integration”
You let your nervous system exhale for the first time since… before the pandemic in 2019
Zebras Underground Take on Reclaiming Rest as a Right
Rest is not quitting. It’s maintenance. It’s recovery.
For chronically ill bodies, burnt-out brains, and tender nervous systems, rest isn’t indulgent—it’s infrastructure. The sooner you recognize that, the faster your healing begins.
You don’t need a new you.
You need the you who survived to be actually be cared for.
So this year, instead of resolutions, try:
Fewer (or lower) expectations
Softer, slower mornings
More grace for yourself
Less urgency and need to feel productive
Radically lower standards for what “counts” as a good day
Because sometimes the bravest thing you can do isn’t pushing forward.
It’s stopping.
Lying down.
And letting yourself be held by the fact that…
You’ve done enough. You already are enough. Just as is.
“Okay But HOW Do I Rest When My Brain Has 47 Tabs Open and My Muscles Think We’re Guarding for an Attack?”
Ah yes. Rest.
That mythical state people recommend like you forgot about it.
If you have ADHD, a hypervigilant nervous system, trauma history, chronic pain, or hypermobile holding it together muscles permanently stuck in “this is threat” mode, traditional rest advice can feel like escape arts unachievable.
“Just relax” is the mantra, but getting there, another thing entirely. Okay, I will simply uninstall my nervous system.
So here’s the Zebra’s Underground advice on exactly how to achieve restorative rest—for people whose brains pace and whose bodies armor up like medieval knights.
1. Stop Trying to “Calm Down.” Aim for Less On Guard.
If your muscles are braced, your body doesn’t want serenity—it wants safety cues.
Press your feet into the floor.
Lean against something solid.
Wrap yourself up tightly.
This isn’t relaxation.
This is telling your body: we are not currently being chased.
2. Micro-Rest Beats Stillness (Especially for ADHD)
If lying still makes your brain revolt, congratulations—you’re normally neuro-spicy.
Try low-stim, repetitive motion:
Gentle rocking
Folding laundry badly
Petting an animal like it’s your job
Doom-scrolling without commentary
Rest doesn’t require silence.
It requires lower demand.
3. Give Your Brain Something Boring to Chew On
ADHD brains relax when they’re occupied just enough.
Brown noise.
Familiar movies and shows you’ve already seen 12 times.
Audiobooks read by calm British people explaining absolutely nothing urgent.
If your brain has a bone, your nervous system can lie down.
4. Release Muscles Without Stretching Them Like They Owe You Money
Guarded muscles don’t want to be stretched.
They want to be noticed.
Squeeze → release.
Heat before rest.
Notice the difference without forcing anything.
Curiosity beats commands every time.
5. Rest Can Be Alert
Rest doesn’t have to be horizontal.
Sitting supported counts.
Legs up the wall for 30 seconds counts.
A nap that never fully happens? Still counts to try.
If your system won’t power down, aim for idle mode, not shutdown.
Your Permission Slip
If you didn’t “relax” but you reduced the load even a little—
That’s restorative.
If your body softened 5%—
That’s restorative.
If you stopped pushing for an hour—
That’s restorative.
Rest isn’t a spa day.
It’s a truce with tension.
And for nervous systems that have been on guard for years, a truce is revolutionary.
A Quick Reality Check (Because Your Deductible Is Waking Up)
If you enjoyed this read or the 200+ other articles from us, know that subscribing to Zebra’s Underground costs $5 a month or $50 a year, which in chronic-illness dollars equals:
One-quarter of a copay
The parking fee for a medical building that still made you walk three blocks
Two lab test fees that will come back “normal”
Less than the coffee you bought to emotionally prepare for calling insurance
Basically a rounding error compared to the money you’re about to set on fire chasing your out-of-pocket max again
You’re about to spend thousands this year just to access care and explain yourself repeatedly. It’s called meeting your deductible.
This isn’t another thing to buy.
It’s a place to land while you’re doing all that.
No prior auth.
No appeals process.
No “have you tried yoga?” energy.
Just language, humor, and someone naming the absurdity so you don’t have to carry it alone.
Frankly, it may be the most predictable expense in your entire care plan. Subscribe already, will you? And if you need a comp, hit reply.
Your “New Year, New You” Plan (But Make It Sustainable)
You don’t need a new you.
You need ongoing support for the you that already exists.
Zebra’s Underground isn’t a glow-up plan.
It’s a stay-with-yourself plan as is and as you grow.
A place where rest counts, bodies aren’t problems, and resilience isn’t demanded as proof of worth.
👉 Join Zebra’s Underground.
$5 a month. $50 a year. Cancel anytime your nervous system needs less input.
Let this be the one thing in your care plan that doesn’t require effort, explanation, or endurance you’re already running low on.
More Coming Soon: Help Calming the Fuck Down (In Audio Form)
If you cannot keep up or focus long enough to read our rants, we will have more audio. Because sometimes reading just isn’t enough or easy.
🎧 Our podcast Seen & Soothed has way more coming soon with ways to calm the f*ck down.
A podcast built for:
Lying down
Zoning out
ADHD brains
Guarded bodies
Exhausted humans
No fixing.
No manifesting.
No pretending life is calm.
But meditations read aloud to help you achieve calm.
Just nervous-system-friendly companionship for the year ahead.
Rest is the plan.
And this year, you don’t have to do it alone.
You’ve already done enough. Rest my friend.
I recently wrote a post about chronic illness and that included how important rest is to keep functioning. Pushing yourself too far just costs you more later on! You shouldn’t feel guilty for listening to your body